
szr.?- u t 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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J&g£teri*sL 



THE REV. THOMAS LOWE, B. A. 



C\ 






©l&ljam: 



PRINTED BY JOHN HIRST, CHURCH STREET. 
MDCCCXLII. 



TO THE 

LATE WARDENS OF SAINT PETER'S CHURCH, 

OLDHAM, 

JAMES MAYERS TAYLOR & KAY CLEGG, ESQUIRES, 

AND TO THE 

ONE THOUSAND AND SEVENTY ONE OTHER OF THE INHABITANTS 

OF OLDHAM 

WHO SIGNED THE MEMORIAL OF REGRET, 

THE FOLLOWING WORK 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR : 

WHO THUS 

GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE KINDNESS, 

ALIKE UNEXPECTED AND UNSOUGHT, 

WHICH HAS LED THEM TO DESIRE THAT HE MAY BE 

RE-ESTABLISHED AMONG THEM IN A MORE FIRM POSITION ; 

WITHOUT ANY RECOMMENDATION, 

EXCEPT THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS FORMER EFFORTS J 

AND WITH NO OTHER INDUCEMENT, 

THAN THE EXPECTATION OF HIS FUTURE USEFULNESS; 

WHICH HOPE 

(THROUGH THE DIVINE ASSISTANCE) 

MAY HE BE ENABLED TO REALIZE AND FULFIL. , 

THOMAS LOWE. 



<&$nttnt$. 



PAGE 

Revelation ; or, Light* and Darkness 7 

What we mean by a Revelation, and the truth thereof. 
Statement of what we are authorised to assume in 
this matter, and the exact limits set to the objection. 
The dispute shown to be not verbal but real, i. e. 
not to result from a difference of the term. 

That a Revelation may contain Mysteries 15 

The alone object for which Deity can be supposed to 
grant a Revelation — Practical. 

That a Revelation must contain Mysteries 21 

How an Imposter would act in giving a Revelation. The 
case not materially altered when the author is an 
Enthusiast. 

The false and true Revelation contrasted. 

The Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 34 

The fallacy of the Socinian theory, and of the Infidel 
theory set forth. . The view of Holy Catholic Church, 
shewn to be the true Doctrine of the Bible. 



iv Contents. 

The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries . 45 

The object of the Christian Revelation shewn to be 
Practical, and the Mysteries contained in it are 
proved to be of such a nature as not to be capable 
of, or to have, defeated, its object. 

The Christian Revelation must contain Mysteries 58 

Where from the relationship of the two parties, the 
Creator and the Created, the necessity arises, and the 
more so because one is Finite and the other Infinite. 

The Infidel's Creed contains Mysteries 65 

1. The Atheists. 

Theory of Atoms. 

Theory of Eternal Compounds. 

Theory of Eternal Elements. 

2. The Deists. 

The question as to man's moral nature and des- 
tiny. 
Future state — dark. 
They all are jointly chargeable with extreme credulity. 
They all believe, too, without proper evidence, and 
in the face of great difficulties. A system with Mys- 
teries on the one hand, and no proofs for it on the 
other. 

The common and every-day Belief of Mankind con- 
tains Mysteries « 78 

1. Theology^ — Natural, as to the Divinity. 

2. Science — Philosophical Theories — Instinct— "Animal 
Tribes — Chemistry — Metaphysics — Mathematics. 



Contents. v 

The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation cannot 
invalidate the moral certainty produced by 
its external evidences 89 

The power of Scientific or Demonstrative, and Moral 

evidence set forth. 
The proper position for Reason and Faith. 
Christianity preserved by her Bulwarks. 

The Benefits resulting from Mysteries 112 

Humility, Awe and Reverence. 

They fill the soul with a bounding hope for the time when 
the mist that now over-hangs it, shall be dispersed 
for ever by the Light that surrounds the Great I AM. 



Appendix A 131 

The Soul. 

Appendix B 139 



"©Sat a 3£Ubrtatton tontatns J&gstews 
forms no soltir argument against fte tntfl) " 



$U$wIation; or, 3Lig§t anir ©arftwa^ 



By a Revelation we here mean a declaration of 
God's will to his rational creatures, in addition 
to what they are, by the light of nature, enabled 
to discover. It is the communication to us of 
what we term a Religion. By the truth of a 
Revelation is here meant, at present, its genuine- 
ness ; its right or title to the character which 
it claims, of having proceeded from God. No 
one who admits this definition of a Revelation, 
that it is a communication of the Supreme 
Being, (and we take for granted that the pos- 
sibility of such a communciation is admitted) 



8 Revelation ; or, Light and Darkness. 

will doubt for a moment its truth/ in the sense 
of its containing authentic statements, or, in 
other words, will impugn its veracity, provided 
he is really convinced that it is a Revelation ; 
to do so is in fact to deny that it is one at all, 
just as to assert that a triangle has not three 
sides, is to deny that it is a triangle at all. (See 
note.) Veracity, is of the essence of a Reve- 
lation, according to our definition. Those 

a It may be proper to remark, that there are, in fact, four 
senses in which the word truth is used. 

First — Where the assertion corresponds with the state of 
the case, which is commonly called logical truth. 

Second — Where the assertion corresponds with the belief 
of the individual who makes it, which is generally termed 
moral truth. 

Third — As synonymous with genuine and opposed to 
spurious. 

And fourth — As synonymous with real and opposed to 
shadowy; as in the expression "I am the way, the truth, 
and the light" — John xiv. 6. where the <£\vQuci is opposed 
to the shadow]/ representations of the former dispensation; 
and as "A member of the true Tabernacle" — Heb. viii. 2. 
where true signifies real, as opposed to typical. 

The third and fourth usages of this term, it will be ob- 
served, are closely allied. 



Revelation ; or, Light and Darkness. 9 

therefore who impugn the truth of a Revelation 
must be presumed to mean that through some 
flaw in the evidence, or other difficulty, the 
document which purports to be such, is not to 
be considered genuine. Now there is one 
apparent difficulty which some assert that no 
amount of evidence in favour of genuineness is 
sufficient to overcome, and that any antecedent 
improbability respecting this point, is never to 
be removed by any external probability on the 
other side. They make this difficulty moreover 
to lie in the existence of what are commonly 
termed mysteries, and they affirm that, "■ a 
document professing to be a Revelation, and 
yet found to contain such, may on good grounds 
be judged spurious :— that no further argument 
is needed against its genuineness, and that no 
amount of external evidence, can redeem it from 
the imputation of being a forgery." 

Let it be supposed, then, that there is in our 
hands a document professing to be a real Reve- 
lation, and that, on examination of certain 
. external evidence, we acquiesce in this claim, and 
that we think we can moreover discern a har- 



1 Revelation ; or, Light and Darkness. 

moiiy between the contents of this document, 
and the character which it claims.it is denied that 
such a harmony does exist, and after the objector 
has taken for granted that the perception of 
such harmony by us is a necessary preliminary 
before we can admit its claims, he proceeds to 
demand that every part of this document be 
fully comprehensible by our understanding ; and 
if the contrary of this be admitted or proved, 
its claims, he asserts, must fall to the ground. 
The probability that the document is genuine, 
so far, as that can be made out by external 
evidence, is granted by him, but a stand is made 
on the sole ground, that because some of the 
statements which it contains are mysterious, 
this external evidence is invalidated, and the 
document must be considered spurious. This, 
then, is the objection which we have here to 
meet and to combat ; and in doing so, we shall 
consider it first absolutely, and without reference 
to any particular revelation, or document claiming 
to be such; its general bearing having then 
been considered, we shall make an application 
of the principles which we may elicit, to the 



Revelation ; or, Light and Darkness, 1 1 

only documents of that kind in which we feel 
interested^ viz :— those which profess to reveal 
the Christian religion, and shew that the mys- 
teries which they contain form no solid argument 
against their truth. 

Although we have hitherto used the term mys- 
tery without explanation, it will be seen that we 
have confined ourselves exclusively to that sense 
of the word in which the opponents of a 
Revelation found their objection. Other signi- 
fications it undoubtedly has, which will be 
hereafter considered, but in shewing that the 
existence of mysteries in a Revelation furnishes 
no warrant to attack its genuineness, we shall 
be careful to use the term in precisely the same 
sense in which it is employed by our opponents. 
We do not think that the question at issue 
may be resolved into a mere verbal dispute about 
the meaning of the word mystery, and that the 
truth will be arrived at by explaining it away in 
such a manner as to soften its apparent harsh- 
ness ; to admit, for example, that there are 
mysteries in any particular Revelation, but that its 
opponents attach one idea to the term, and we 



12 Revelation; or, Light and Darkness. 

another— that if their meaning be the correct one, 
their position is tenable, but that our explanation 
being admitted, their alarms will vanish. On 
the contrary we believe that the point at issue 
is concerning things, that the dispute is real, not 
verbal, that both parties may be considered to 
attach the same signification to the term, and 
that the thing signified, and not the sign, is by 
them held to prove the spuriousness of the 
document in which it may be found. 

By mystery, then, both parties here understand 
a statement which involves matters above our 
comprehension. There is frequently a confusion, 
it may be proper to remark, attending this usage 
of the term, it being made sometimes to stand 
for the statement that expresses the fact, and 
sometimes for the fact itself. To both of these 
the term incomprehensible is popularly applied. 
We say, e. g. (to borrow an instance from the 
Christian Revelation,) " that the doctrine of 
the Trinity is incomprehensible," i. e. the state- 
ment or proposition in which the fact is conveyed 
to us is so, and we say also that " the Trinity is 
incomprehensible." Of these two usages of the 



Revelation; or, Light and Darkness. 13 

term the former is the correct one, but the 
distinction here laid down will not affect our 
argument. A mystery, then, is a statement or 
proposition presented to the mind for its assent, 
but in which we fail to discern the full propriety 
and truth of the nexus between the different 
terms, or in other words, where we cannot 
entirely perceive the congruity between the 
subject and the predicate of the proposition in 
which the fact is announced. In some cases we 
even think we see a disparity or incongruity, 
but this is not always so, and seems not there- 
fore essential to the notion of a mystery. It 
may be called the oracular enunciations of a 
truth wherein the simple fact (or being) is 
asserted, and the modus or manner of being 
is suppressed ; where in familiar language, the 
what (Quid) is told us, but the how (Quomodo) 
is left untold, and which for lack of such Reve- 
lation is not merely unknown, but is at present 
unknowable. Moreover it claims to be believed 
not for any seeming truth involved in it, but 
soley through good faith in the general veracity 
of him who said it. This is what Theologians 



14 Revelation; or, Light and Darkness. 

commonly call the Ecclesiastical meaning of the 
term mystery, and is the sense in which our 
opponents understand it. 



& JSteMattow mag contain iMsftterteg. 



If previous to a Revelation being delivered into 
our hands, we were to speculate on its nature 
and contents, it is probable that our conjectures 
would be very far wide of the mark. We might 
look for information in it regarding the Being 
who granted it, or regarding ourselves, regarding 
the relation that exists between both parties, 
or regarding the practical bearing which such 
a relation must have on man. Some in short 
would expect to find in it ample information on 
all those curious and intricate questions re- 
specting the Divine Being with which they had 
themselves, it may be, felt perplexed ; whilst 
others would probably look rather for a code 
of laws to guide their course through the 
intricacies which here beset them in their moral 
path. 



16 A Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

Of these various sects of expectants no one 
could be positively sure till the Revelation 
actually took place, that his own views were 
correct, and no one, therefore, would be justified 
in maintaining his own peculiar hypothesis 
after the publication of the Revelation, unless 
on inspection this hypothesis was found to be 
in accordance with the fact as revealed. If 
then to have pronounced authoritatively in the 
midst of the previous uncertainty, on what the 
expected Revelation ought to contain, would 
have been deemed rash and presumptuous, 
equally unwarrantable would it be after its 
publication and avowal of its object and end, 
to cavil at it for not having accommodated 
itself to the particular views of any one set 
of expectants, were confessedly no satisfactory 
data existed to ensure accuracy to their an- 
ticipations. 

The Revelation would, it may fairly be assu- 
med, state the distinct object it had in view, and 
those who criticised its various parts without 
reference to that object, would be censurable 



A Revelation may contain Mysteries. 17 

for the absurdity to which we have already 
alluded^ viz. of virtually ascribing to it an object 
of their own invention, and trying it by that. 
It is evident, therefore, if the Revelation dis- 
tinctly avowed, e. g. that its object was practical, 
the individual who looked for mere speculative 
information would not be justified in withholding 
his assent to its claims, simply on the ground 
that his expectations had not been fulfilled, 
seeing that all along he had nothing but his own 
preconceived and imaginary standard of pro- 
priety to guide him in forming such expectations ; 
and still less would he be excusable if, wdthout 
coming to any conclusion about the real object of 
the Revelation, or even whether it had any real 
object or no, he reject it for no other reason 
than because in some parts of the document he 
found what seemed to clash with his unfounded 
anticipations. We must conclude, then, that in 
every document which professess to contain a 
Revelation from the Supreme Being, it behoves 
us to look to its professed end and avowed 
object, and see whether its various parts do not 
really conspire towards the fulfillment of that 
end, — at least it is our duty to forbear to criti- 



18 A Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

rise these parts separately and without reference 
to their position and use ; but to admit the 
necessity of such reference, before we can, with 
certainty, decide not only that these parts are 
so superfluous as not only to merit culling out, 
but to justify us in casting aside the document 
altogether. 

In contending for this conclusion, we advance 
no more than what is judged right in the or- 
dinary concerns of human life. We do not 
attempt, e. g. to criticise the structure of any 
machine, or decide upon the aptness or unapt- 
ness of its several parts, until we know the use 
to which it is to be applied. The inside of a 
watch would present to us, at first sight, but 
an unmeaning series of movements and contri- 
vances if we knew not to what end they all 
conspired; and even after being let into the 
secret, we should probably be still unable to 
trace with precision the mode in which they all 
bore upon the single point ; we should see 
several wheels in the interior, in more or less 
rapid motion, and the final cause of such evolu- 
tions would not become apparent until the hands 
on the face had darkly revealed it, — I say 



A Revelation may contain Mysteries. 19 

darkly, for even then, without farther informa- 
tion, we could not find out that their motion 
round a graduated circle, was in the slightest 
degree connected with the measuration of time. 
One who in this state of ignorance then, pre- 
sumed to condemn or even to criticise the 
movements which he beheld, would justly be 
regarded by us, as hasty and rash in his censure, 
even though we ourselves failed to explain, with 
perfect accuracy, those parts which he, from his 
ignorance of their uses, had condemned. In all 
such cases the rule is simply this :-- that we bear 
in mind the end, whilst we judge of the means. 
To explain may not be in the direction of that 
to which the Revelation is aimed, and this, it 
will be granted, is at least possible, whilst to 
prove the contrary, is impossible, viz. that the 
Revelation in arriving at its aim must pass 
through an explanation of the mysteries. Let 
us, in illustration of these remarks, take the case 
of a schoolmaster teaching arithmetic. The 
instructor asserts the coincidence of the result 
, of. an operation with the modus operandi which 
he prescribes, and he is believed by his pupil, 
on extrinsic and independent evidence, i. e. the 



20 A Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

general veracity of his character, to tell the 
truth, when he asserts that the result will, if the 
operation be conducted according to his will, 
always prove true. Here it may not enter into 
his design to convey to his pupil at present the 
reason or theory of the operation. What his 
reasons for such concealment may be, we need 
not at present inquire, but every one will admit, 
that it would be absurd if the pupil, for lack 
of such explanation, should reject the rule which 
is put into his hands, and refuse to consider his 
teacher as a trust-worthy person. 



a fUMaiton mmt tmxUin 0tt>$Uxit& 



In the previous reasoning it has been my 
object to shew that a Revelation may contain 
mysteries, by pointing out a possible condition 
under which the explanation of them would form 
no part of the end for which it took place ; thus, 
that for anything we can tell beforehand, it may 
be entirely practical in its aim, and properly 
reject the exposition of merely speculative truths. 
We may, however, go a step farther, and assert, 
that of all the purposes for which we can con- 
ceive a Revelation to be granted, a practical end 
is the only one which we can reconcile with the 
character of its author ; for we cannot, (I say,) con- 
ceive that the Deity would grant us a Revelation 
solely for the purpose of adding to our store of 
scientific information, that he would condescend 
to interfere with our researches, and instruct us 
regarding the motions of the Heavenly bodies, 
or the various tribes of dwellers on our planet, 
still less that His interference would take place 



22 A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 

for the purpose of unfolding to us the hidden 
properties of His own nature, unless that deve- 
lopement should act on us in such a manner 
as to make us wiser and better. Even unassisted 
reason can tell us that to "do justly, to love mercy, 
and to walk humbly before God," is more truly 
ennobling than even the discoveries of a Newton, 
and that a Revelation tending to promote the 
exercise of such deeds, would bear on its front 
a more genuine impress of Divinity than that 
which should merely confine itself to questions 
that leave our moral nature as they find it. In 
such a Revelation we should speedily detect 
something wanting ; the puny soul of man would 
feel unsatisfied with such unsubstantial food, 
his heart would be chilled, and he would quickly 
come to the conclusion that such discussions 
ill correspond with what ought to be the inter- 
course between God and His natural moral 
offspring. In a word, whoever looks to the 
condition of human nature, must confess that a 
Revelation which should simply inform of things 
to be known, not of things to be done, had left 
its work imperfect and unfinished, and thus no 
interposition can be conceived worthy of the 



A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 23 

Supreme Being, which does not assume the 
character of a guide. A Revelation must act 
the part of a lantern. It must fulfil that office 
in the moral world, which the sun performs in 
the physical ; i. e. direct our steps, that so we may 
walk without stumbling. A Revelation may be 
fitly called a " light." But, to continue in the 
words of a learned writer of the present day, b 
" it is a light to see by, not to gaze at." It is 
analogous, not to any " dazzling meteor in the 
appearance of nature, or to any splendid spec- 
tacle produced by art, but to that glorious 
luminary which is not the less serviceable in 
enabling us to be sure of our path, because we 
cannot stedfastly behold it." 

A false Revelation is likely to contain many 
things which would gratify human curiosity, but 
would involve no practical duties, and this is 
one of those points in which, if the above re- 
marks be correct, it would differ from a true 
Revelation. 

The natural desire of knowledge which is 
implanted within us, would lead a skilful forger 

b Hind's Rise of Christianity. — Vol 1, page 122. 



24 A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 

to adapt his Revelation to this craving, and we 
might expect that such a one would be more 
than ordinarily explicit in his inteligence, he 
would foresee that objections on the score of 
unintelligibleness, would most likely be raised, 
and he would be on the alert to prevent the 
possibility of such occurring. He would see 
that man has in particular an eager longing 
after further information regarding the ways 
and works of God, and to this appetite he 
would immediately address himself; and, to 
prove that he had indeed been admitted into 
the councils of Heaven, he would describe those 
unknown regions, towards which human as- 
pirations are always tending, as if he had been 
an eye-witness of them. Nor would the case 
be materially altered were the author of the 
spurious Revelation not an imposter but an 
enthusiast, for he too w^ould, though from dif- 
ferent cause, fall into the same track as the 
other. The feelings which the imposter sought 
to gratify in others, would forcibly exist 
in himself, and these, acting on a morbid ima- 
gination, would leave him to deceive himself 
with what the other had skilfully invented for 



A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 25 

the purpose of deceiving others. In both these 
cases then, information regarding the regions of 
the unknown and invisible world superabounds, 
and what to a superficial observer would seem 
the most convincing evidence of genuineness, 
may, we see, be justly held as one of the most 
decisive marks of spuriousness. 

That such a conclusion is no mere hypothesis, 
is proved by the most rapid glance at those 
superstitions, which, under the name of Reve- 
lation, have successively imposed upon mankind ; 
in all these we find an almost childish minuteness 
with regard to the future state ; a shadowy 
dwelling on those particular pleasures which 
the countrymen of the impostor would most 
eagerly covet, and a studied obtrusion of those 

c This is exactly the course of argument pursued by 
Bishop Warburton in his "Divine Legation of Moses." 
His object in this singular work is to prove the Divine mission 
of the Hebrew lawgiver, not merely from the scanty intelli- 
gence which he gave regarding a future state, but from the 
circumstance that no information whatsoever was given by 
him concerning it, — a fact inexplicable when the code of 
uninspired lawgivers and their copious references to a future 
state are considered, except on the hypothesis that he was 
divinely inspired. 



26 A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 

horrors from which their particular experience 
would prompt them to shrink. If these obser- 
vations are correct, we may be prepared to 
expect that the conduct of a true Revelation, 
will, in these points, be found exactly opposite, 
and that the practical character to which we 
have already adverted, will be found its most 
distinguishable feature. 

When the false Revelation would give notions 
of future bliss and woe, the true will tell us 
how to secure the one and avoid the other ; 
where the impostor would lift the curtain and 
in miniature proportions which all may scan, 
sketch the features of that dread Being, 
who, in His bright sanctuary sits behind it, the 
true Revelation will be busied in unfolding to 
us the varied duties on our side, that spring 
from our relation to Him, and chiefly intent, 
not on lowering Him, to our capacity, but on 
lifting us nearer to His nature ; it will only 
unfold to us so much of His character, as will 
suffice for a solid foundation whereon to build 
the code of laws to which it demands our 
adherence. In this process, however, statements 
not perfectly comprehensible by us, must occur. 



A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 27 

For as all duty springs from relation between 
the party that owes it, and that to which it is 
owed, it follows, that the party which owes the 
duty, must know something, at least, of the 
nature and extent of the Revelation from which 
such duty flows. He requires not to know the 
entire history and nature of the Being to whom 
he owes this duty, but he must know so much 
of Him, as will render the fulfillment of the 
duty a reasonable service. 

A child, in the performance of his duties to- 
wards his father, needs not to be informed of the 
character and rank of his parent, but he must 
know that he is his parent, and whatever notion 
he may form of this term, it must be one suffi- 
ciently definite, to convince him of his parent's 
right to receive his love and obedience. Even 
so is it, with the parent of the universe. Though 
he may not know the various properties of His 
nature, yet something must necessarily be re- 
vealed ; but as this Being is infinite in His 
nature, perceptions, and attributes, it follows, 
»that whatever is revealed regarding Him, even 
though bearing practically on man, must be 
tinged with an obscurity arising from this pecu- 



28 A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 

liarity^ that to us will wear even the appearance 
of contradiction. Nothing can be more easy in 
forging a Revelation than by an artful disposition 
of particulars to avoid the appearanoe of such 
obscurity; and the absence of this subject is 
therefore to be held as a mark of a true Reve- 
lation ; d especially if this obscurity and difficulty 
of comprehension be frankly owned by the 
document which purports to be such. Since it 
is inconceivable, not only that an impostor should 
admit such into his Revelation, but that if he 
has done so, that he should call attention to 
them. Moreover if, in addition to the infinity 
of the Divine nature, which must, to a certain 
extent, enter into the subject matter of a Reve- 
lation, we take into account the probable destiny 
of man, so far as consideration of his immaterial 

d The following excellent rule respecting this point, is given 
by Coleridge. " Reasoning from finite to finite, on a basis of 
truth, also, reasoning froni infinite to infinite, on a basis of 
truth, will always lead to truth, as intelligible as the basis on 
which such truths respectively rest. While, reasoning from 
finite to infinite; or from infinite to finite, will lead to 
apparent absurdity, Although the basis be trues^gnd is not 
such apparent absurdity, another expression for truth unin- 
telligible by a finite mind Y'—Aids to Reflection, note p. 156. 



A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 29 

part can enable us to discover it, and which we 
are entitled to infer must form, in connection 
with the development of his duties, an impor- 
tant part of a genuine Revelation, and if we 
consider the mysteriousness of that tenant of 
our bodily frames, the qualities and essence of 
which baffle our mightiest efforts to detect, we 
shall see abundance of additional proofs for the 
assertion that a genuine Revelation must contain 
certain things hard to be understood. How 
can those high themes, the purpose and scheme 
of the Creator in our formation, and the mode 
in which the designs of the good Spirit have 
apparently been baffled in our world, as con- 
nected with the manner in w 7 hich we ought to 
co-operate with his plans, be revealed to us 
without involving not merely the intentions, but 
the very nature and inmost essence of one, of 
whose existence it is a necessary condition, that 
no created intelligence can fathom his nature. 
And yet such, it may confidently be expected, 
will be the topics about which a genuine Reve- 
lation must be conversant. The only alternative 
then is, either to admit the Revelation, clear, 
with regard to the nature of our duties, but 



30 A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 

dark and mysterious, respecting Him, who is 
their object, or else to assert that no Revelation 
can be made by the Supreme Being to man. 
There is no middle course. If a Revelation is 
to be made, it must, in consequence of the topics 
of which it will treat, contain mysteries, and 
without the admixture of something mysterious, 
it would dwindle into a mere code of moral 
Philosophy, so utterly unstable in its foundation, 
so utterly devoid of a binding and obligatory 
character, as not to deserve the name of a 
religion. 

In a word, mere information regarding the 
unknown world, is the characteristic of a spu- 
rious Revelation; a mere • catalogue of duties, 
of a purely human philosophy; a genuine 
Revelation therefore embraces them both, and 
deduces the one from the other. But whilst 
we should feel justified in regarding, with 
suspicion, the claims of a Revelation, so copious 
and full in its information as to leave no question 
unanswered, inasmuch as the God of nature 
would not then be recognised in the God of 
Revelation, still, it must not be presumed, 
that a Revelatfon which leaves such themes not 



A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 31 

fully explained, is, therefore, with reference to 
us, to be censured as meagre and imperfect in 
its communications. There is, in some cases, 
an advantage in a scanty Revelation, where a 
farther development might defeat its end. For 
practical purposes, all truth is relative, and that 
which is a true statement of doctrine to one 
capacity of intellect, may be virtually false to 
another, if it be such, as cannot but lead the 
person to whom it is made, to form false con- 
clusions. But this would be unavoidable, if it 
involved matters above the capacity of his 
intellect. On the contrary, that which gives 
him, if not a perfectly correct idea of things 
as they are, yet the nearest to this that we can 
receive, may, with reference to him, be deemed 
true. An inadequate notion is better than none, 
and if the present measure of our intellect can 
be shown to preclude a fuller development, 
with reference to questions that involve the 
Divine nature, a slight consideration of what 
we are wont to do in the ordinary affairs of life, 
will lead us to expect that a Divine teacher will 
rather give us what we can at present bear, 
than preserve a total silence. 



32 A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 

Where a Ml Revelation cannot be made, we 
may reasonably look for an imperfect one. But 
an imperfect Revelation forms a mystery. So 
far as it is clear, it may fitly be termed a Reve- 
lation; beyond that, mystery begins. Thus a 
teacher instructing his pupil in arithmetic, to 
use a former illustration, may be described as 
conveying truth mingled with mystery, and 
preferring rather to convey to his pupil inade- 
quate notions, than not to convey any notions 
at all. He cannot inform of the reason or 
rationale of his rules, that requiring a know- 
ledge of the higher branches of mathematics, 
but he would not, therefore, be justified in with- 
holding from him the rules; The truths which 
he does convey to his pupil, are, for practical 
purposes, to him relatively true ; but an infusion 
of theoretical reasoning regarding the principles 
on which they are formed, would not only be 
unintelligible to the pupil, but would most 
probably confuse his notions with regard to the 
rules themselves, so far as to destroy their 
practical utility. The eye is formed to give 
primarily intelligence of light and colour only, 
and the child is in his first perceptions, neces- 



A Revelation must contain Mysteries. 33 

sarily mislead as to the form and magnitude of 
objects. 6 But is it not better that this incon- 
venience should for a season exist, than that, to 
avoid passing through the transition state of 
imperfect perception, he should never come to 
have any perceptions at all ? So too, this may 
be our rudimental and transition state, as to a 
knowledge of loftier things ; here we may be as 
children gaining our first notions, and a little 
time may suffice, in a higher state of existence, 
to correct the errors into which we may here 
have necessarily fallen, in acquiring so much as 
we do know of these things. 

e See Berkeley's Theory of Vision. 



©!je ®%xi*tim fEUtolation trots (outaiu 



Hitherto we have treated merely of a Reve- 
lation in general, and have endeavoured to 
prove, that the existence of mysteries would 
form no solid argument against its truth, and, 
provided those who maintained its divine origin, 
brought forward the proper amount of external 
evidence in favour of its claims, the mere fact 
of its containing things hard to be understood, 
or even impossible to be fully comprehended, 
ought not to invalidate its pretensiorR. 

But we have to stake in this controversy the 
credit of a system of unspeakable interest, and 
any discussion of this kind that leads not to 
reflect a strong and steady light on its claims 
and evidences, and to clear up the difficulties 
that seem to surround it must appear vague 
and nugatory. We purpose, therefore, to apply 
to this system the arguments which hitherto we 
have considered without special reference to any 



A Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 35 

in particular, and shall show that the Christian 
Revelation not only may, but, from the very 
nature of the subject of which it treats, must 
contain mysteries, and, consequently, that the 
existence of these forms no solid argument against 
its truth. 

Those who hold that the mysterious doctrines 
of a Revelation form no solid argument against 
its truth, may in their treatment of Christianity, 
be divided into two classes, those, viz. who admit 
that there are mysteries in the documents which 
profess to reveal this system of religion, and 
thence deny its genuineness, and those who 
admit its genuineness, but in. arriving at this 
conclusion, deny the existence of its mysteries/ 

With this latter class of opponents we are 

f The arguments of these two classes of adversaries, if 
expressed in a syllogistic form, would stand thus : — 

Every Revelation that contains mysteries is spurious. 
But the Christian Revelation contains mysteries. 
Therefore the Christian Revelation is spurious. 

Every Revelation that contains mysteries is spurious. 

But the Christian Revelation is not spurious. 

Therefore the Christian Revelation does not contain mysteries. 

The former is the Infidel, the latter the Socinian, hypothesis; 



36 A Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 

here less immediately concerned, than with the 
other ; yet inasmuch as the same fallacy vitiates 
both conclusions ; we deem it necessary to pre- 
face our examination of the mysterious doctrines 
of Christianity, by showing that this Revelation 
really does contain statements of facts that lie 
above and beyond the sphere of our compre- 
hension. 

In treating of some Christian doctrines as 
things hard to be understood, it may be proper 
to draw a line of distinction between two classes 
of Scripture difficulties ; those, namely, which 
are difficult of comprehension, per se, and those 
wherein the difficulty arises from the nature of 
the vehicle employed for conveying the Revela- 
tion. Our concern here, is solely with the 
former class. To the other may be referred the 

the former is refuted by disproving the major premiss, this 
however would not be a sufficient answer to the other. It 
would not from thence follow that the Christian Revelation 
does contain mysteries, if the argument were directed simply 
to shew that there is no necessary inconsistency between the 
genuineness of a Revelation, and its containing mysteries, 
hence the necessity in order to meet both classes of opponents, 
to shew in the text that our Revelation does really contain 
mysteries. 



A Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 37 

obscurities which spring from an imperfect 
acquaintance with the languages of the Old and 
New Testaments, and the manners and customs 
of the parties introduced, while a third class 
may, perhaps, be formed, of those cases where 
the ways of God's providence seem to be at 
variance with our pre-conceived ideas of a 
moral fitness and propriety . g 

In proving that the Christian Revelation con- 
tains statements, of which we cannot comprehend 
the full import and bearing, the only mode is, 
to examine some of its leading doctrines, and 
shewing that those views, which are in fullest 
harmony with the written record, may be so 
characterised ; and on the contrary, that those 
explanations which ingenious men have devised, 
and which involve little or no apparent contra- 
diction, are at variance with one statement or 
other of the Revelation. 

It is a principle in philosophy and sound 
reasoning, that no theory is to be considered 
correct, which is not co-extensive with the facts 

s With regard to these last, the Hulsean Lectures of the 
Rev. C. Benson, "On Scripture Difficulties," maybe consulted 
with much advantage. 



38 A Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 

or phenomena which it professes to explain. 11 
The theory, e. g. which derives all our ideas 
from sensation is faulty in this respect, because 
it leaves unexplained, a large class of our ideas ; 
those .viz. of incorporeal or immaterial qualities, 
as cause and effect, Spirit, and the like, which 
it is evident no modification of ideas derived 
from sensible qualities, could ever evolve. The 
same may be detected in many other hypotheses. 
Now in most of the leading doctrines of 
Christianity, we may, on examination, perceive 
more than one class of facts, and no theory or 
doctrine regarding them, can be deemed admis- 
sible, which does not comprehend all the 
phenomena brought under our view. With 
regard, for instance, to the person of Christ, 
there is one class of doctrines or facts, which 
describes him 'as God, and alongside of this, 
there is another class of statements, that 
describes him as man. x\ny theory, consequently, 
which only accounts for, and explains, the 
former character, is imperfect, and no less so, 
is that w T hich includes, simply, an explanation 
of the other. The correct theory must account 

h See Airev's Tracts. 



A Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 39 

for both phenomena. If, however, we find that 
the two theories, which, on these grounds, we 
designate as faulty, are still perfectly intelligible, 
whilst that which, from being co-extensive with 
the facts, satisfies the necessary conditions of a 
true theory, is yet such as to appear contradic- 
tory, i. e. transcends the grasp of our under- 
standing rightly to conceive, we do, on good 
grounds, assert, that this is, at least, one mys- 
terious doctrine, contained in the Christian 
Revelation. And such theory we find actually 
to have been formed. On the subject of Christ's 
nature, then, are found in the Bible, two sets 
of statements, one of which affirms that he is 
God, 1 and the other that he is man. j A correct 

1 Among numerous other proofs, the following passages 
may be quoted as direct testimonies. John i. 1 — 5. Acts 
xx. 28. Rom. ix. 5. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 1 J*n v. 20, 

With regard to the passages from Acts and Romans, and 
especially that much contested point, the genuineness of the com- 
mon text in the former, the reader is referred to the admirable 
work of Bishop Middleton on the Greek article ; and the 
genuineness of the passage from Timothy, is, in our opinion, 
indisputably proved in the able dissertation by Berriman, on 
that Text. (8vo. London 1741.) 

J See (inter alia) John i. 14. John ii. 12. Acts ii. 30 
PuiLir ii. 7. 



40 A Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 

theory must therefore include both of these 
classes of statements. Yet we find that 
explanations have been advanced at different 
times regarding Christ's nature, some of which, 
as those of Arms and Socinus, denied his God- 
head, in the true and proper sense of that term, 
the latter regarding him merely as a man. Now 
such a theory presents no difficulties to the 
understanding, but that which we term the 
Catholic doctrine or theory does, by asserting 
that in Jesus Christ, the divine and human 
natures were united ; k an union of which we 
cannot comprehend all the bearings. Nay, 
where we cannot progress beyond a simple 
enunciation of the fact, but which, however, 
must enter into the only admissible theory on 
the subject. 

i 

k " And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son 
of God, Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, 
Light of light, Very God of very God, Begotten, not made, 
Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things 
were made : Who for us men, and for our salvation came down 
from Heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the 
Virgin Mary, And was made man." — Nicene Creed. Con- 
formable to this statement is the language of our Church. — ■ 
Art. ii. 



The Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 4 1 

Again we find it stated in the Christian 
Revelation, that the persons of the God-head 
are three/ and it is also asserted that there is 
but one God. m Any theory or doctrine, there- 
fore, which has respect merely to one of these 
two facts (for so we may still be permitted to 
call them) is faulty on the score of deficiency. 
And yet such theories have been framed. One, 
for instance, recognises merely the Unity of the 
Divine nature, and forgets its Trinity ; whilst 
another dwells exclusively on the Trinity, and 
leaves out of view the Unity. The former main- 
tains that there is but one God, and that this 
Divine Being has seen it good to manifest him- 
self to man, under three different characters. 
This is the Sabellian hypothesis. The other 
holds that there are three divine persons, and 
that these are not one God, but forqp. one God- 
head. A third hypothesis maintains that there 
are three persons, and that these three are one 
God. Of these various theories, the first and 

1 See Isa. lxiii. 7 — 10. Matt, xxviii. 19. John xiv ; . 
16, 17. 1 Cor. xii. 4—6. 

m See Deut. vi. 4. Mark xii. 32.; x. 18. 1 Cor. viii. 
6. 1 Thess. i. 9. 1 Tim. i. 17 ; vi. 15. 

F 



42 The Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 

second explain each only one class of facts, the 
third is co-extensive with all the facts, asserting 
" one God in Trinity, and Trinity in nnity. n Yet 
the first two are perfectly intelligible, the third 
contains difficulties which no human under- 
standing is able to solve. But the third has 
ever been maintained to be the true doctrine of 
the Bible, whilst the others have uniformly been 
denounced as fraught with error. These two 
doctrines then, that which regards the nature 
and person, and that which has respect to the 
God-head, may safely be pronounced to come 
within the range of mysterious doctrines. We 
need not multiply proofs that there are in 
Scripture, things that lie' beyond our unaided 
reason, and one more will suffice. There are in 
the Bible, two classes of statements, with regard 
to the mo^e of obtaining God's favour, and 
acquiring fitness for the Celestial Kingdom, 
"that by grace salvation is obtained, through 
faith, not of works ;° and that faith without 
works is dead, being alone.'" p Each of these 
statements has been adopted on the basis of a 

n Athanasian Creed, 
o Eph. ii. 8, 9. p James ii. 17. 



The Christian Revelation does contain Mysteries. 43 

separate hypothesis ; that of the Antinomian, 
which recognises faith alone, rejecting the neces- 
sity of good works ; and that of the Legalist 
which admits the necessity of the latter. Each 
of these systems is quite comprehensible, and 
presents no difficulties to the understanding. 
But the Catholic Church has ever held a third 
view, that which embraces both the facts of 
Revelation on this head, and yet this third view 
contains difficulties with regard to the mutual 
bearings of these two agencies, which we cannot 
adequately explain. 

But if the Socinian denies the existence of 
these mysteries in the Christian Revelation, let 
him be assured he has only paved the w r ay for 
the admission of statements, still more incom- 
prehensible. The language, e. g. in which the 
Evangelists narrate the actions of Christ, and 
speak of his character, is, on the hypothesis that 
he is a mere man, unaccountable. Still more 
so is the favourite notion of the Socinian, that 
the "word" or Aoyos of the Divine Being, is 
merely a quality or attribute of his nature, and 
that this quality or character became man, and 
was clothed in a garment of flesh ; to say so, is, 



44 The Christian Rev elation does contain Mysteries, 

in fae^ to confound the distinction between sub- 
stance and quality, by asserting that the latter 
underwent a transmutation into the former. 
Nor, in fine, is the notion less unreasonable, that 
a mere man should be exalted into an object 
of worship, which results from the scheme of 
those who deny the Divine nature of Christ ; 
to admit this, we must introduce the inculcation 
of idolatry into the Christian system, and make 
the Revelation contradict itself, where it de- 
nounces this as sin, and that too in a manner, 
that lying (as this question does) entirely within 
the scope of our reason, tends to nullify the 
whole Revelation.* 1 

q For further remarks on this subject the reader is referred 
to Bishop Stillingfleet's excellent Discourse "on Scripture 
Mysteries." — Enchiridion Theologicum, Vol. i. ; to which, for 
some of the above remarks, I confess my obligations. In 
arguing with the Socinian, it will be obvious that we take for 
granted, as we are allowed to do, the genuineness of the 
Revelation. 



^t <£|jrurttaw afttbtXatton wag contain 
«ptptmeg< 



" There is nothing that the Holy Ghost doth 
so much labour, in all the Scripture, to beat 
into men's heads, as repentance, amendment of 
life, and speedy returning unto the Lord God of 
hosts."' If this be a true statement of the 
purport of the Christian Revelation, we need 
not be surprised at its silence on topics, the 
full explanation of which, would in no way 
further this end. We have already shewn in the 
former section, that there is no necessary 
incompatability between the existence of mys- 
teries in a Revelation, and its truth, provided 
it can be shewn that the object for which the 
Revelation takes place, lies in another direction ; 
and we suggested as the most probable end, for 
which a Revelation would be granted, or rather 
the only cause for which we could imagine one 
to be given" a, practical bearing on human life and 

r Homily of Repentance. 



46 The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

destiny. To prove, therefore, the possibility that 
the Christian Revelation may contain mysteries, 
without endangering its reputation of genuine- 
ness, we have only to enquire whether it does fall 
within the exculpatory limit which we then 
pointed out ; in other words it now behoves us 
to enquire what is the purport of this Revelation, 
and whether its object be practical or theoretical. 

If simply theoretical, then may we (at least 
in the outset) expect a full explanation of all 
the topics on which it professes to treat ; if 
practical, it must be conceded, if our former 
reason is correct, that, at least, it may contain 
mysteries. 

Under this head, we "lay down two pro- 
positions. 

First,— That the object of the Christian Reve- 
lation is practical. 

Second,— That none of the mysteries contained 
in it, are of such a nature as to defeat the 
attainment of its object. 

First,— The great end of the Christian Revela- 
tion is, after informing man of his alienation from 
his maker, and the circumstances which led to 
his apostacy, to aid in restoring him to that 



The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 47 

place in God's favor, and to fit him for the 
enjoyment of that happiness for which he was 
originally designed. 

Every one who reads its pages dispassionately, 
must see that such is its aim ; that it addresses 
itself to the great task of correcting the evil 
nature, which it affirms to be in man, of renewing 
his nature after a purer model, and of re- 
establishing those principles of rectitude, and 
holiness, and purity, which a great moral 
revolution had well nigh banished from the 
earth. To th's grand object all its efforts are 
aimed ; to this single point its exhortations, 
its precepts, its promises, its threatenings, its 
prophecies are directed. The Christian Scrip- 
tures are not books filled with speculations, and 
curious researches. To that question of sur- 
passing interest to every rational mind, "what 
shall I do to be saved?" they give but one 
simple and uniform answer, " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ." They declare that the 
object of the gospel is to set men free from the 
tyranny of their sins. And the same thing is 
proved by the example of the first teachers of 
Christianity. For what object could have 



48 The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

actuated men, who renounced every thing, and 
who endured every species of toil and misery ? 
and suffering, except to persuade their fellow 
creatures to do " the things that belong to their 
peace ?" Besides, whether they speak or write, 
they spend not their time in controversies and 
disputes, the ordinary fruits of human vanity ; 
every thing with them is practical ; every thing 
in their discourses and their writings bears a 
close reference to human actions and feelings. 
Spurning at "the enticing words of man's 
wisdom," their sole aim is edification, " my little 
children, these things write I unto you, that ye 
sin not." Lastly the practical character of 
Christianity, may be still further seen by 
adverting to that very peculiar feature of it, 
the numerous exhortations which it contains 
of a cautionary and preventive character. 
This we conceive to be a distinguishing mark 
of the Christian Religion, when contrasted with 
other systems of religion. He who governs not 
his inward thoughts and imaginations, leaves 
his soul a prey to those corrupting desires, 
which keep it in a disposition to violate the 
requisitions of God's law, and in a readiness to 



The Christian Rev elation may contain Mysteries. 49 

proceed to acts of impurity, or violence, when- 
ever circumstances may bring them before him. 

In truth, nothing seems more alien from the 
mind of these early teachers of Christianity, than 
the notion, that they were delivering merely 
speculative truths. If they tell us of God, it 
is to tell us to be like him. If they unfold to 
us the joys of heaven, it is that we may thirst 
after them. If they tell us of a future scene 
of misery, it is that we may be incited to shun 
it. Yet how sparing are they in their descrip- 
tions of those separate states ! Mahomet gives 
us in his Koran, the most minute and circum- 
stantial details respecting the Paradise which 
he promises to his Believers. Every voluptuous 
delight that can tempt the passion of the 
Oriental, he sets before them. 

But the Christian is simply informed that for 
him, if a lover of God, " eye hath not seen, 
nor imagination conoeived the joys that await 
him." But, as to the mode of gaining those high 
rewards, every part of the Christian Revelation 
is clear and explicit. The language of its author 
is this, — " Not every one that saith unto me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 



50 The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my 
Father which is in heaven."* And this is the 
uniform tenour of Revelation ; for " all Scripture 
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
rection, for instruction in righteousness, that 
the man of God may be perfect, throughly 
furnished unto all good works." u 

Those who examine the Christian Revelation 
for the purpose of convincing themselves that 
its great object is practical, will, however, do well 

'Matt. vii. 21. u 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 

Compare, among numerous others, the following passages, 
taken from widely separate parts of the Revelation, and 
written in widely different periods of the Church. 

" The secret things belong unto the Lord our God : hut 
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our 
children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." 

Detjt. xxix. 29. 

" He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good ; and what 
doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ?" Micah yi. 8. 

" Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which 
I say ?" Luke vi. 46. 

" Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples : 
and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends 
of the world are come." 1 Cor. x. 11. 



The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 5 1 

to bear in mind the following cautions. ■ First, 
that, in such examination, we advert to the cir- 
cumstance that a large portion of the scriptures 
conduceth to practical results, not immediately, 
but mediately, not directly, but indirectly. Of 
such a nature are many of the historical parts, 
and those which confirm fulfilled prophecy. 
But, even in such cases, it highly behooves us to 
know the dealings of God with reference to our 
race ; and if we admit, as we are bound' to do, 
that these things are recorded for our example, 
a directly practical result is immediately ob- 
tained. If merely secular history has been 
rightly termed philosoply teaching by example, 
surely then, the scripture history may well be 
termed, the tuition of a Divine philosophy. And 
whilst it teaches us God's love for them that 
love him, and his constant and unceasing Provi- 
dence over all his creatures, equally efficacious 
is fulfilled prophecy in unfolding to us other 
perfections of the Divine nature, his omniscience, 
and his wisdom ; and in conciliating still farther 
our regard and admiration. 

Secondly, we ought to remember that from those 
parts of the Revelation most difficult to be com- 



52 The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 

prehended, there may still be gathered practical 
lessons; the Doctrine of the Trinity, for example, is 
confessedly held to be such ; but even this, dark 
and mysterious as it is, is calculated to fill our 
minds, if rightly contemplated, with sentiments of 
reverence, of awe, and of humility. Lastly, in con- 
sidering the practical character of the Christian 
Revelation, we must advert to the fact, that 
practical, is a word of relative signification, and 
what is practical to one age of the Church may not 
be so to another. Many of the Apostolic epistles, 
for instance, were, it may safely be granted, 
ever immediately practical in their results, with 
reference to those to whom they were addressed. 
And if this can be made out, as doubtless it can, 
even though we should fail of discovering, in 
every part of them, an immediate bearing on 
ourselves, and our particular circumstances, yet 
would not their practical character be thereby 
invalidated. And in like manner it is easy to 
conceive that, in many respects, they may bear 
to us, living at this remote epoch from their first 
publication, a practical value which then tftey 
could not have, by assuring us of the similarity 
of the Catholic doctrines in all ages, and that 



The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 53 

what is now taught as such, is the same with 
that which was held at the beginning. So also 
in the case of Prophecy. The practical value 
of unfulfilled Prophecy is of one kind— of ful- 
filled of another. The value of the former is of 
a direct nature— of the latter of an indirect 
nafcute. The former is useful in telling before- 
hand of coming events— and in preparing men 
for their arrival ; the latter affords evidence 
on the completion of the Prophecy, of the 
Divine mission of him who uttered it ; an 
evidence so satisfactory that nothing can justly 
be esteemed superior. Whether, then, we look 
to the immediate or mediate bearing which the 
Christian Revelation has on man ; whether we 
look to the directly practical nature of its 
precepts, and its Revelations of the future, or to 
the inestimable and important lessons to be 
derived from a consideration of its historical and 
prophetical parts, we are justly warranted in 
admitting the truth of its own assertion, that "all 
Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 
The more steadily we keep in view this great 
truth, that the object of the Christian Revela- 



54 The Christian Rev elation mm/ contain Mysteries. 

tion is practical, the less liable shall .we be to 
fall into error from a consideration of its 
mysteries. One of the most common fallacies 
into which, in all onr researches, we are apt to 
run, is onr proneness to mistake and overstep 
the true boundaries of the human faculties. 
Howeyer distrustful men may be, in some re- 
spects, of the power of unaided reason, they come 
to a study of Revelation with an expectation 
for which they can have no previous warrant, 
that thus they receive a full and distinct know- 
ledge of all the points of which the Revelation 
may treat. The original source of this error 
is doubtless to be sought for in that pride which 
is natural to the human ' heart, which makes 
man disdain to acquiese in the belief of what he 
does not fully understand ; and another source 
may be traced in his thirst after knowledge, 
which, however excellent and praiseworthy it 
may be, when reserved within just limits, is very 
liable to be carried to excess. Against the 
error springing from these two sources— the 
error of expecting a full knowledge of everything 
which God has revealed to us in his word, we 
know of no better preservative than frequent 



The Christian Revelation may contain Mysteries. 55 

and deep meditation *on the real object for 
which the Christian Revelation was granted, viz. 
that we may be instructed in what is needful 
to be known, in order to our serving God, and 
living conformably with His commandments. 
Every thing that lies beyond this, is withheld ; up 
to this point, nothing needful has been kept back. 

Our second proposition was, that none of the 
mysteries contained in the Christian Revelation 
are of such a nature as to defeat the attainment 
of its professed object. 

Although our attention be now mainly con- 
fined to prove that the existeuce of mysteries 
in the Christian Revelation forms no argument 
against its truth, yet it is not the mere existence 
of mysteries in it which is always attacked by 
the Infidel^ In many cases, the ground between 
the Christian advocate and his opponent has 
been narrowed, and limited, rather to the con- 
sideration of particular mysterious doctrines, 
than to the general question of the admissibility 
of mysteries at all. And in such discussions, 
we find that the most frequent argument urged 
against the mysteries of the Christian Revelation 
is, "that they unfit it for purposes of a prac- 



56 The Christ tan Rev elation may contain Mysteries. 

tical nature." If the dispute was always 
confined to the general question; are mysteries 
admissible in a Revelation, the Infidel would 
deem it unnecessary, if he thought he had 
maintained his own proposition, to spend his 
forces in particular attacks on individual mys- 
teries ; but since, however, he has frequently 
made such attacks, it becomes the more 
necessary to advance the proofs whereby we 
can substantiate our proposition. 

The question is "has Christianity succeeded, 
in its object, or has it failed?" If it has 
succeeded, then have none of its mysterious 
doctrines, blighted its energies or defeated its 
purposes. But Christianity has not failed. Its 
triumphs have been by the bedsides of the dying, 
and by the last hours of the conscience-stricken 
sinner ; its victories have been proclaimed 
wherever the footsteps of the missionary have 
penetrated, and myriads now live under its mild 
and equal laws, who, but for it, would have 
been the votaries of a blood-stained Heathenism. 
Twelve humble men went forth from Galilee, on 
a crusade against the powers and the wealth, 
the pomps and the vanities, of the world ; and 



The Christian Revelation mag contain Mysteries. 57 

the powers of the world set themselves in 
array against them. But surely the Lord fought 
for them ; surely an unseen arm protected them. 
For a system that proclaimed open war with 
many of the dearest passions of the natural heart, 
has succeeded in treading on the neck of super- 
stitions that ministered to every lust, and all 
resistance that assailed it served but to fan its 
flames, and give new energy to its successes. 
What it proposed, it has achieved. And that, 
too, in such a manner as to warrant us in tossing 
back, with withering scorn, the reproach of 
credulity, to the philosophist who thinks that 
all this may be sufficiently accounted for on 
human principles. Yes! Christianity is practical 
in its object— and nobly has it succeeded in 
realizing its promised results. 

Since then the object for which the Christian 
Revelation was granted, can be proved to be 
practical, it must be conceded, that it may 
contain mysteries ; that they are compatable, 
at least, with the result which the author of the 
Revelation contemplated. 

But we shall now go a step farther, and 
proceed to prove that 



Zfy (KEjrisitmx 3&ebrtatfou must contain 
4Wg*ter(*0. 



What, in the former section, we stated as a 
probable anticipation, with regard to a true 
Revelation in general, has, we find, been actually- 
realized in that whose claims we now advocate 
—that whilst a practical bearing on man and 
his destinies would be its leading characteristics, 
this would be inseparably connected with 
Revelations scanty indeed, yet sufficient for 
their purpose, of the Divine nature. Thus we 
saw the greatest probability, that so much, at 
least, of the Divine nature would be unfolded, 
as would suffice whereon to base its requisitions 
from man. And we shewed finally, that if such 
a course took place, statements and doctrines 
would necessarily be introduced beyond the 
capacity of the human mind adequately to 
comprehend. 

On inspecting the Christian Revelation we 
find that all this has taken place. We find 



The Christian Revelationmust contain Mysteries. 59 

statements and doctrines regarding, not merely 
higher orders of intelligence, but respecting 
that Being of whose existence, (to borrow our 
former remark,) it is a necessary condition that 
no created intelligence can fathom his nature. 
We find communications from this glorious 
Being— we find statements not only respecting 
his attributes and qualities— but touching, di- 
rectly,, on the very nature of his existence. We 
have statements respecting the Godhead— we 
are told of other persons belonging to it of 
whose existence, unaided reason— had never 
previously formed even a conjecture/ The 

v We pass by here, as unworthy of notice, all that " decan- 
tata fabula" about Platonism and other Heathen Trinities as 
adumbrations of the Christian doctrine, and agree with 
Coleridge that Plotinist would be their more fitting appella- 
tion, being rather reflections from Christianity, than precursors 
of it. 

"From the confounding of Plotinism with Platonism, the 
Latitudinarian Divines fell into the mistake of finding in the 
Greek philosophy many anticipations of the Christian faith, 
which in fact were but it echoes. The inference is as perilous 
as inevitable, namely, that even the mysteries of Christianity 
needed no Revelation, having been previously discovered and 
set forth by unaided reason." — Coleridge Literary Remains, 
Vol. Hi, p. 416. 



60 The ChristianRevelationmustcontainMi/steries. 

most astonishing of all mysteries would be, that, 
such themes could be fully handled in such a 
way as to be comprehensible by the human 
understanding. We have already shown in the 
first section, that, upon a careful consideration 
of the topics which a Revelation may justly be 
expected to introduce, the conclusion is— that 
mysteries are inevitable, and that, therefore, 
their existence is not to be urged as an argument 
against its truth. We have now seen that the 
Christian Revelation does actually contain such 
topics, and, inasmuch as the admission, that 
" None can by searching find out God, none can 
find out the Almighty to perfection," w will be 
made by every sound mind, we are also entitled 
to infer, that the existence of mysteries in the 
Christian Revelation forms no solid argument 
against its truth. 

We deem ourselves, however, justified in 
proceeding beyond this point ; and we ask the 
candid inquirer— if he can fully realize to 
himself the notion of a Revelation from Infinite 
Intelligence, which would not contain " things 

w Job xi. 7, 8. 



The Christian Rev elation mast contain Mysteries. 61 

hard to be understood ?" Were a Revelation to 
be promulgated without such difficulties, we 
hesitate not to affirm that it would be deficient 
in many of the most satisfactory tokens of a 
Divine origin. Nor would the unbeliever be 
slow in discovering so open a ground of attack. 
The battery which he now opens on the Chris- 
tian Revelation would shift its position, and his 
artillery would be aimed against this much more 
vulnerable point. Let the Book be divested of 
those difficulties which result from the inter- 
course of a superior nature with ours, and you 
rob it of one of the most convincing proofs that 
such is actually its origin. x 

" That God should speak with all the simplicity 
of a man, and never once introduce an allusion 
to matters unknown, or too high for man's 
ordinary preceptions, would have been deemed, 
and I think, justly deemed, as inconceivable, as 
that a philosopher should speak with the 
homeliness of a rustic, and never once refer to 

x " That which so far surpasses all understanding cannot 
be a dream of the human mind ; that which excites us to so 
much good cannot be the work of an impostor." — Purke's 
sur la Philosophie de Vincredulite. 



62 The Christian Revelationmust contain Mysteries* 

principles of science, which are unknown or 
incomprehensible to the labourer." y 

A Revelation which should exhibit no marks 
of that infinite distance which must ever lie 
between the Creator and the creature, would, 
therefore, carry in its forehead— the mark of 
falsity; it is to make God comprehensible by 
man, to make the infinite be grasped by the 
finite. As well might we circumscribe eternity 
within the boundaries of time, or inclose the 
boundless fields of space, within the narrow 
limits of this world's continent. If the Bible 
were not mysterious, it could not discourse to 
us of God, who must for ever remain a fathom- 
less mystery, not merely to man, but, to the 
highest orders of created intelligence. Those, 
therefore, who demand a Revelation without 
mysteries may fairly be charged with asking for 
an absurdity. Infinity is the theatre on which 
the Most High performs his designs, and eternity 
is to be occupied in their completion ; and 
Himself " although to know be life, and joy to 
make mention of his name ; yet our soundest 

y Benson's Hulsean Lectures, p. 56. 



The Christian Revelation must contain Mysteries. 63 

knowledge is, to know that we know him not 
as indeed he is, neither can know him ; and our 
safest eloquence concerning him, is our silence, 
when we confess, without confession, that his 
glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our 
capacity and reach." 2 

If in fine Revelation were to limit itself by 
the powers of the human intellect, it would ex- 
clude those topics on which, from the weakness 
of our understanding, Revelation is required. 
To suit the expectations of the Infidel, therefore, 
either that scanty amount of information must 
alone be given which would exclude those 
high topics, or the human faculties must be 
strengthened and enlarged, and man must be 
lifted up into a higher state in the scale of 
Being. Such is the unanswerable conclusion 
to which the argument of the Infidel directly 
conducts him. We again say, therefore, that 
there would have been abundant fairness in the 
objection, which would have been urged against 

Hooker Eccl. Pol. b. 1, s. 2. 

See Summer's sermons on the Festivals. — Ser. xxi. — 5th 
Edition. Were some things concerning God which we can, 
and some which we cannot understand are beautifully set forth. 



64 The Christian Revelationmust contain Mysteries. 

Christianity had it contained nothing "hard to be 
understood." Men might then, with less risk of 
speedy refutation, have advanced the position 
that a Revelation which levelled the infinite to 
the capacity of the finite, must have been guilty 
of misrepresentation. And even unassisted 
Reason can, in her clear moments, see that none 
" can by searching find out God ;" and if she 
found that a document, purporting to contain a 
Revelation from this Being, remained yet in all 
respects, easy and intelligible, and exhibited a 
God in no-way lifted above the full survey of 
human observation, doubtless she would decide, 
and justice would ratify her decision, that the 
absence of mysteries did form a solid argument 
against its truth and genuineness. 



Hfyt iwfi&rt'g eueft toutain* ;JWs0tetft& 



Were it proved with regard to those who 
maintain the legitimate existence of mysteries, 
or incomprehensible statements in a Revelation, 
that they were singular in their belief, although 
this circumstance would not of itself convict 
them of error, since their acquiescence in 
mysteries would deserve to be weighed and 
considered on independant evidence ; yet the 
great bulk of mankind is so constituted, that, 
from this very circumstance, they would pro- 
nounce a verdict against them. It is prudent, 
therefore, to inquire— whether the opponents of 
our Revelation on this ground, do not themselves 
act in the very manner they condemn— nay 
whether statements which we do not perfectly 
comprehend, be not a part of that universal and 
every day belief of mankind, without which the 
common concerns of human life could not be 
carried on. 

In doing so we shall first notice those opinions 



66 The Infidel's Creed contains Mysteries. 

of our opponents, which are peculiar to their 
own systems, considering, in the first place, the 
tenets of the Atheist, and, secondly, those of 
the Deist. By those who deny the existence of 
a Creator and Governor of the Universe, two 
dhTerent opinions have been brought forward, 
with regard to its origin. The first is that 
of Epicurus, as expounded by Lucretius, who 
held that this universe was formed, not by the 
power of God, but by the fortuitous or chance 
concourse of atoms ; and the other is that of 
Aristotle and the Peripatetics, and embraced by 
most of the modern Free-thinkers, "that this 
mundane system has existed from all eternity, 
and never has been made at all, either by the 
Deity or without him." This opinion exists 
under two forms. First, that the elementary 
matter, of which the universe is compounded, 
is eternal, as to its origin ; or secondly, that 
from eternity it has existed, as it now does, in 
a compound state. Respecting these opinions, 
our proposition is, that they are beset with 
difficulties of such a nature, as fairly to entitle 
them to a place among incomprehensible state- 
ments. 



The InfideVs Creed contains Mysteries. 67 

As a fortuitous concourse, either of atoms, or 
of other substances, has been witnessed neither by 
the Atheist nor any one else, we cannot have 
the remotest idea of the manner in which it 
could have been brought about. By a law of 
our minds, so universal that philosophers have 
resolved it into an ultimate fact, and considered 
it the effect of intention, we are led to classify 
all phenomena which we witness under the 
two-fold relation of cause and effect. Of every 
phenomenon that we witness, we seek to inves- 
tigate the cause, so universally do we take for 
granted that a cause does exist, though we fail 
to discover it, that, to suppose an action without 
an agent, an effect without a cause, would run 
counter, not only to our experience, which is so 
uniform in this matter that some a would resolve 
into it our notion of cause and effect, but, to 
what may justly be termed the most simple, 
and ultimate laws of our mental constitution. 
We believe in the testimony of our senses, of 
our memory, of our consciousness, and no 
contrary assertion can persuade us that such 
testimony is erroneous. We cannot explain 

a Such as David Hume, Dr. Thomas Brown, &c. 



68 The Infidel's Creed contains Mysteries. 

why we believe such testimony. Such is our 
constitution, and this is all we can say in the 
matter. There are ultimate facts, and we 
cannot go beyond them. We know that we 
are so constituted. Equally strong and unas- 
sailable is the conviction which we have of the 
necessary connection between cause and effect, 
and however Hume and his followers may have 
attempted to introduce confusion into such 
belief, we can no more acquiesce in their theories, 
than with Berkeley we can doubt the evidence 
of our senses, and disbelieve the existence of a 
material world. And yet this absurdity is 
involved in one of the forms which Atheism 
assumes ; this which we have just seen it is 
impossible to believe, viz. that effects can be 
fortuitous, that is by chance, that is without 
any cause, has been gravely maintained by those 
who object to the incomprehensible doctrines 
of the Christian Revelation. They refuse their 
assent to doctrines on subjects that lie far 
beyond the reach of the human intellect, and 
they demand our assent to dogmas, that are as 
contradictory of the first principles of our 
understanding, as to disbelieve the evidence of 



The Infidels Creed contains Mysteries. 69 

sense, of memory, and of consciousness. They 
reject our creed, and they present for our assent 
one which might fitly assume this form— Credo 
quia est impossibile. 

We have already remarked that another form 
of the Atheistical hypothesis corresponded to 
the doctrines of the Ancient Peripatetics, either 
that this universe has, in its present form, existed 
from all eternity, or that the elementary matter 
of which it is compounded has so existed. 

Now with regard to the former hypothesis, 
for we cannot call it a theory , b we would 

b Having used these terms more than once, let it be allowed 
here to settle their signification. 

By an hypothesis is meant a supposition, invented to account 
for an observed fact ; it is a fancied cause. We know, for 
instance, that the nervous system is connected with sensation, 
but we cannot tell in what manner impressions are conveyed 
along them. To explain this, Hartley invented the hypothesis 
of " Vibration." So also we know that there is a connection 
between Soul and Body, but we cannot explain how they 
mutually act on each other. To explain this, Leittely 
invented the hypothesis of a "Pre-established harmony." 

A theory, on the contrary, is generally founded on facts, such 
as that of Gravitation, where the observed fact forms the ground 
work, and is synonymous with the theological term " doctrine," 
the facts here being the declaration of Scripture. 



70 The Infidel's Creed contains Mysteries. 

remark, that an eternal compound is a contra- 
diction, for if a compound, then there must have 
been a compounder and a time of composition, 
and if so, then its existence must have had a 
beginning. In fact, this notion is a slovenly 
attempt to get over difficulties by evading them, 
and under a specious pretence to cloak the 
veriest incongruity. Let us, then, consider 
the other hypothesis, namely, that the elementary 
matter of the universe has existed from all 
eternity. If so, the question immediately occurs, 
who, or what, if no Deity be supposed to exist, 
could have reduced that matter to its present 
form ? What revolution of things impressed on 
this matter its multifarious shapes, and stamped 
it everywhere with those marks of design which 
strike even the most cursory observer ? Grant 
the existence of a Divine Being, and the whole 
becomes intelligible, but, without this admission, 
we feel justified in calling this doctrine the 
most egregious of all mysteries, unless the 
hypothesis of the fortuitous concourse of atoms 
seems rather entitled to take the first place. 

Nor are their philosophers less liable to ani- 
madversion under this head, for their doctrines 



The InjideVs Creed contains Mysteries. 71 

regarding the origin of man. Some have asserted, 
that the first man was produced by mere ac- 
cident. Others have denied that he has had any 
beginning, but that his race has been continued 
in the same manner as we now see it, by Suc- 
cession and Propagation. 

On neither of these opinions need we dwell ; 
for the error which we have already exposed, 
that of supposing an effect without an adequate 
cause, pervades them all. In fact, if we attempt 
to philosophize on the origin of this universe, 
without taking into account the existence of 
God, we are immediately beset with difficulties, 
or rather impossibilities, that meet our view at 
every turn. Those, therefore, who profess such 
views, would do well not to object to the mys- 
teries of the Christian Revelation, for the extreme 
of credulity has no right to reject aught that 
may be offered to its belief. It has already 
shewn its capacity for believing, by believing 
that the universe could have been made, and 
none to make it ; and we who reject all this, 
and cling merely to the simple doctrines of the 
Christian Revelation, beaming with light, though 
here and there tinged with obscurity, which a 



72 The Infidel's Creed contains Mysteries. 

gracious God, we believe will yet fulfil, ought 
by them to be termed the unbeliever. They the 
believers, or more properly the ultra-believers. 

Secondly — But the system of the Deist, it 
may be urged is not exposed to these objections. 
This, to a certain extent, we admit ; and in 
exhibiting what we may at present term the 
mysteries which enter into the creed of the 
Deist, we must be careful to distinguish between 
those truths which he does hold, wherein yet 
many inexplicable things present themselves, 
and those inexplicable difficulties into whieh he 
runs, solely in consequence of what he does not 
believe— in consequence of the peculiarities of 
his own system. The Deist professes to believe 
in the existence of a God ; he believes, at least 
some do, that the practice of virtue is the law 
which w r e live under, and he thinks that a future 
scene may be a probable termination of this 
present state, wherein the tears of suffering, 
virtue will be wiped away, and due punishment 
inflicted on those who have lived traitors to her 
laws. We have here taken the most favourable 
view of the system. Many who have denied 
the truths of the Christian Revelation, have also 



The JjifideVs Creed contains Mysteries. 73 

sought to release themselves from the faneied 
severity of its statutes, and the virtue, therefore, 
of their Philosophers undergoes accordingly no 
little modification, according to the direction 
and vehemence of their own passions. For 
even Epicurus did not utterly deny the existence 
of the GodSo He only thought them far removed 
from the ways and works of mortals, and under 
this impression, many of his followers gave a 
loose to every evil appetite, and brought con- 
tempt on the moral character of a Philosopher, 
who has perhaps, in this respect, been misrepre- 
sented. Just so has it fared with many of the 
Infidel 'Philosophers of modern times, and the 
morality of Lords Herbert and Shaftesbury is very 
different from that of Rousseau and Voltaire. 
But however different, in many respects, the 
several schools of Infidel Philosophers, both in 
this and neighbouring countries, may have been, 
enough has been advanced by all of them, to 
warrant us abundantly in our assertion, that 
their systems are replete with difficulties, and 
that too of an insurmountable nature. Of the 
opinions which the Deist holds in common with 
the Christian, regarding the existence and cha- 



74 The InfideTs Creed contains Mysteries. 

racter of God, we shall speak hereafter ; at 
present it is our object to point out the 
difficulties that defy solution, which spring from 
their system, in so far, only, as it is distinguished 
from the Christian Revelation. And here, since 
the Being of a God is on both sides granted, the 
Infidel system fails to inform us how, under the 
administration of an infinitely good Being, which 
they grant him to be, moral evil has intruded 
into our world— why we meet with misery and 
wretchedness in a place over which they believe 
a Being of unerring justice presides ; why— since 
we utterly deny that they can prove the existence 
of a future state, their statements on tha*t head 
being merely a borrowed reflection from Christi- 
anity, and, in truth, acknowledged by every one 
of themselves ; why man, being a creature of 

c Much discussion has taken place since the publication of 
Warburton's great work on the question, " Whether, and 
how far, unaided reason is competent to prove the existence, 
and form notions, of a future state." An attentive examination 
of the remains of Heathen antiquity, is, we think, sufficient 
to convince us, that doubtful surmises were the utmost of what 
• the ancient Philosophers arrived at, and that the assertion 
that " Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light, in 
the gospel," may be adopted in all the fulness of its meaning. 



The Infidels Creed contains Mysteries. 75 

such boundless and high aspirations, should be 
placed by this infinitely good and wise Being, 
on this insignificant ball of earth, merely to 
vegetate for a little season, and then cease to 
exist ; and, lastly, he cannot tell, since his 
notions of the future state are, on his own 
system, not susceptible of demonstration, why 
he should either acknowledge one sole Maker, 
or recognise in that Being, the moral perfections 
which he professes to ascribe to him. 

To all these questions, the Deist can return no 
satisfactory answer. But till he can do so, we 
are bound to insist that his objections to the 
mysteipes of the Christian Revelation do vanish. 
He has no right to impugn the genuineness of 
that Revelation, because it involves questions 
to which no satisfactory reply can, at present, 

The more confident assertions of the modern Infidels, in 
favour of a future state, may fairly be derived from the influence, 
(however disowned by them,) of Christianity, and in some of 
their arguments may be detected that fallacy which consists 
of reasoning in a vicious circle. They prove God's moral 
goodness and justice from the existence of a future state/ of 
rewards and punishments, and then prove the existence of 
such a state from God's infinite justice and goodness. See 
further remarks Appendix A. 



76 The InfideVs Creed contains Mysteries. 

be afforded, seeing that without positive in- 
formation, and unsupported by positive evidence, 
he professes his belief in a system liable to all 
the objections which we have just enumerated ; 
a system beset, in a word, with mysteries on the 
one hand, and with no direct proofs in favour 
of it, on the other. 

Here, then, we may again apply the charge 
of credulity to him, who is more generally called 
the Unbeliever,— for he believes without evidence, 
and in the face of difficulties. The Christian, 
though difficulties do exist in his faith on certain 
points, yet believes on direct and well grounded 
evidence. Let not then the Infidel an^Wonger 
arrogate to himself that superiority of intellect, 
which, he fancies, is derived from a hardness to 
believe. Whilst extreme proneness to believe, 
without due evidence, is to be esteemed a weak- 
ness, equally so is extreme Scepticism, to believ^ 
when there is evidence. And which of these is 
the besetting sin of the Infidel, will, by different 
minds, be differently estimated. To us it appears 
that both may, in different senses, be rightly 
charged against him, and that he who triumphs 
over the Christian world, for what he esteems 



The Infidel's Creed contains Mysteries. 77 

the easiness of their faith, ought speedily to be 
told, that the man* who, in the face of insur- 
mountable difficulties, believes a system supported 
by no nroper evidence, may justly be branded 
with the mark of weakness and credulity. Let 
him remove it if he can. 



W^z common an& cberg4rag belief of 
iMPauftintr contains iWgstews, 

i 



It may perhaps be enquired why we have not, 
in the foregoing remarks, made a more frequent 
reference to the " Analogy" of Bishop Butler, 
that work which so well vindicates to man the 
w r ays of God in the ways of redemption, by a 
comparison of these, with his ways and works 
in the kingdom of nature ; but we thought it 
a worthier tribute to the great Philosopher, to 
endeavour to follow his example, and to imitate, 
as far as we could, his manner of enquiry, than 
merely to re-produce his immortal work under 
another form. "TheAnalogy" of this great Divine 
is, indeed, an adamantine pillar, worthy of the 
faith it is intended to support, as that faith is 
worthy of it. 

It is the sound remark of an Apocryphal 
writer, that "Hardly do we guess aright at things 
that are upon earth, and with labour do we find 
the things that are before us ; but the things 



The common and every -day Belief, fyc. 79 

that are in Heaven, who hath searched out." d It 
is, in truth, one of the most common fallacies 
into which men fall, to fancy that whatever is a 
common subject of their thoughts and discourse, 
they consider as comprehensible by their faculties 
and clearly intelligible. 

The only antidote to this fallacy lies in a deep 
and habitual reflection on the numberless mys- 
teries that daily surround us, and the indistinct 
and imperfect notions which ^jve possess of many 
phenomena, the existence of which we cannot 

d ' Qmria exeunt in mysterium," says a Schoolman, i. e. 
there is nothing, the absolute ground of which, is not a mystery. 
The contrary were, indeed, a contradiction in terms ; for how 
can that which is to explain all things, be susceptible of an 
explanation ? It would be to suppose the same thing first 
and second, at the same time. Aids to Reflection. 

" We do not at all know what the substance of any thing 
is." — Sir I. Newton. 

I may confidently say, that the intellectual and sensible 
world, are, in this particular, alike, that that part which we 
see of either of them, holds no proportion with what we see 
not, and whatsoever we can reach with our eyes, or our thoughts, 
of each of them, is but a point, almost nothing, in comparison 
of the rest; he that knows any thing, knows this in the first 
place, that he need not seek long for instances of his ignorance. 
See also Smith's ' Cure of Deism." 



80 The common and every-day Belief, fyc. 

doubts although they are continually passing 
before our eyes. e 

Of many of our most familiar terms, we have 
but a very indistinct conception, and a few steps 
conduct us into an abyss of darkness, which no 
human understanding can fathom. In fact, the 
further we enquire into a variety of matters, the 
greater obscurity we find to pervade ; and the 
remarkof Simonides to HiEito,is the confession 
of every candid and enquiring mind, that of 
certain things, such as the nature of God, the 
longer he meditates, the longer it seems requisite 
to meditate. We all profess to have certain 
notions of the Supreme Being, with reference to 
what we term his attributes," and the aggregate 
of human knowledge on this head, we groupe 
into a systematic form, and give it a place among 
the sciences, calling it Natural Theology. Yet 
how full of mysteries is this branch of know- 
ledge. Of the difficulties that beset our cogi- 

e We believe men will live in a future state. This is a 
mystery contained in the Christian Revelation. 

We believe seeds will die, and yet live again. This is a 
mystery in nature. The fact proves the truth, and by Analogy, 
the above mystery is solved. 



The common and every -day Belief, fyc. 81 

tations on the Divine nature, we have already- 
touched, and the less will it be necessary here to 
bring forward on this subject. Yet a very little 
reflection may convince us, that this scene, so 
worthily termed by Bacon, "the Sabbath and 
Haven of all man's contemplations," is full of 
things hard to be understood, and that God is 
not to be viewed, in so far as mysteries are 
concerned, with a more unclouded aspect here, 
than He has vouchsafed to wear in Revelation. 

The attributes of God, such as Self-existence, 
Eternity, Omnipresence, and the like, are no less 
mysterious, and above our comprehension, than 
the Doctrine of the Trinity. We find as great 
difficulty in conceiving the manner of these 
attributes, or in forming a notion how the Divine 
Being exists without cause or beginning, as to 
form a conception of Unity in Three Persons ; 
or of Trinity in One God. 

By the self-existence of God we mean that He 
exists of himself, by the necessity of his nature, 
without external or internal cause of existence. 
We are certain that this is an attribute orproperty 
of the Divine Nature ; because, as He is the first 
cause of all things, it is impossible that any thing 



82 The common and every -day Belief, fyc. 

should be prior to Him, or that there should be 
any cause from which He proceeds. And yet this 
is, to us, a great mystery. " The knowledge of it 
is too wonderful for us ; it is past finding out ; we 
cannot attain unto it." It is not for us to 
conceive how any Being can exist, without any 
possible cause of existence. 

Nor less mysterious is the eternity of God. 
There are difficulties in it, which we cannot 
solve. When we attempt to explain, or even to 
conceive, an eternal past duration, we are im- 
mediately lost and bewildered ; and the longer 
we reflect upon the subject, the more amazing 
it grows. Whether we attempt to conceive of 
God's eternity, under the ' notion of an eternal 
Now, an everlasting instant, co-existent with all 
the periods of time, yet itself unaffected by 
their revolutions, or think of it under the form 
of a successive duration, we are equally beset 
with insuperable difficulties. We cannot realize 
to ourselves the notion of a Being who can 
appropriate to himself the expression "before 
Abraham was, I am ;" or that other, "that with 
Him a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day." 



The common and every -day Belief, fyc. 83 

Again, if we think of a succession of time, 
this implies a first moment, a part of time prior 
to the rest. We cannot conceive the one 
without the other ; and a first moment implies 
a beginning, which is inconsistent with eternity. 

Lastly, for we need not enlarge on this head, 
the Omnipresence of God, which reason no less 
teaches, is another mystery. We cannot attempt 
to explain it without involving ourselves in a 
labyrinthine maze ; we can merely state the fact, 
but the modus or manner defies our utmost 
efforts to form a notion of it. If we suppose 
the Divine Essence to be every where like the 
smallest point, what do we mean ? Nor are we 
less surrounded with difficulties, if we suppose 
the Divine Essence to be infinitely extended, for 
extension is a property of matter, and cannot 
be predicated of an immaterial Being. The 
idea of it involves that of divisibility, which is 
repugnant to the notion of Deity. It is likewise 
that of a composition of parts, which is at 
variance with the singleness or unity of His 
nature. 

It appears, then, that the existence of mysteries 
is not a characteristic of the Christian Revelation 



84 Trie common and every -day Belief, §c. 

exclusively, for the opinions which reason teaches 
us regarding the Supreme Being, are equally 
mysterious and incomprehensible. Yet these 
latter are believed by numbers who reject the 
doctrines of Christianity, on the plea that they 
are mysterious. There is nothing in the doctrine 
of the Trinity, and the other mysteries of the 
Gospel, more perplexing and inconceivable than 
there is in the Self-existence, the Eternity, and 
the Omnipresence of God ; and it is therefore 
as reasonable to believe the one as the other. 
If right reason direct us to believe these attri- 
butes, notwithstanding their mysteriousness, she 
must, if consistent, direct us to believe the 
mysteries of Christianity. They must stand or 
fall together, for the case is exactly parallel ; 
there is the same ground for assent, and the 
same argument for disbelief in both ; they must, 
therefore, be admitted or rejected alike. To 
believe the one, and not the other, is manifest 
partiality, alike repugnant to equity and reason. 
But leaving the consideration of the Divine 
Being, for w r e trust we have sufficiently shewn 
that the God of nature is equally mysterious 
with the God of Revelation, it may be well to 



The common and every -day Belief, fyc. 85 

try the Infidel argument, " that the existence of 
mysteries is inconsistent with the truth of a 
statement/' on a smaller scale, and ascertain 
thereby what amount of validity there may be 
in it. 

Let us see whether in our philosophical and 
scientific researches, we reject the discoveries 
of the learned, because they involve matters 
which we cannot adequately explain or com- 
prehend. In such an inquiry, however, it seems 
difficult to decide where to begin, for what else 
is philosophy to him who rightly understands it, 
than a loud proclamation of human weakness ? 
We observe that a heavy body falls to the earth, 
we know not why, but we call it attracted. Yet 
what more is this than stating the phenomenon 
over again in other words ? The terms in which 
we deliver our theories, as "Gravitation" and 
the like, are only specious representations of our 
utter inability to afford adequate explanations. 

The whole economy of the inferior animal 
creation, is to us an inexplicable mystery. What 
we term instinct is simply a demonstration of 
of our own ignorance. Neither know we what 
paints the Butterfly's wing, and gives its exqui- 



86 The common and every -day Belief, %c. 

site hue to the Violet's petal. We know not 
what prompts the Nightingale to warble forth 
his melodious sonnet, nor why his note should 
differ from that of the Raven. When we look 
into the domain of Chemistry, we cannot tell 
why the mixture of two cold substances should 
produce a hot one ; why two solids should 
engender a liquid ; why two liquids a solid ; or 
why two colourless substances, commingled, 
should give one dyed with the beauties of 
vermilion. 

In Metaphysical science, too, difficulties beset 
our path at every step. We form ideas of 
abstractions, and yet nothing can be more vague 
and shadowy than such ideas, still such ideas 
enter into our common and every-day belief. 
The union between soul and body must for ever 
remain a mystery, which man cannot hope to 
solve ; and if we meditate on the respective 
bearings which these two substances have on 
each other, we shall quickly find ourselves in a 
labyrinth. 

We cannot tell why matter should act on a 
substance so essentially different from it in kind ; 
nor can we explain how an act of the will should 



The common and every-day Belief, fyc. 87 

be accompanied by an action of the body, if 
such was willed. Every movement we make, 
every emotion we experience, every joy and 
every grief we feel, is a mystery ; every effect 
which we can trace in the incorporeal part, 
from the injury or decay of the corporeal, is 
inexplicable, and not less calculated to defy our 
efforts at explanation, in every alteration in the 
outward condition of the body, produced by 
purely mental causes, which we can discover. 
These are our every-day observations, this is the 
daily belief of mankind, and yet it is full of 
mysteries. 

In Mechanical science, mysteries stand equally 
thick. " Of force" says Berkeley, " it is as 
difficult to form a notion, as of grace ; and we 
cannot explain why a body when pressed by 
another should recede from its place." We say 
it moves, but as in other cases, we merely give 
names, and forget that the name is no demon- 
stration of the mystery which we seek to know. 
We speak of a point, of a line, of a triangle, 
and yet of these ideas, apart from individuals, 
there is no prototype in Nature. We ask 
for distinct ideas in Revelation, and yet as 



88 The common and every-day Belief, fyc. 

Berkeley justly remarks, "words may not 
be void of signification, though they do not, 
every time they are used, call up a distinct idea 
in the mind." To take a familiar example, in 
summing up Pounds, Shillings, and Pence, we do 
not at every step think of the peculiar coins. 
And indeed, in no respect, perhaps, is the 
advantage of a truly judicious and philosophical 
cultivation of mind, more apparent than in its 
guarding us against the vulgar error of considering 
the things spoken of as easily comprehensible, 
in proportion as the names of them are common 
and familiar. 

The Logician and the Algebraist f are accus- 
tomed to the use of arbitrary symbols, and are 
well aware of the important fact, that we may 
reason justly, even when the terms which we 
employ are utterly unmeaning to us ; and if they 
are careful to make due application of this 
principle, they should remember that though 
it may be a great convenience to have a name 
for something, of which we have but a very 
imperfect idea, we must not thence suppose that 
we have attained to the knowledge of it. 

f See Appendix B. 



Wl)t existence of iltgsteries in a 3£tebelation 

eannot tnbaltirate t§e .moral eertatntg pro- 

ijucett &g it* external ebitrenees* 



There are two modes in which the truth of a 
Revelation may be vindicated from the objections 
brought against it, from its possessing mysterious 
doctrines, either by proving that in the nature 
of things mysteries must enter into its compo- 
sition ; or by a reference to the moral evidence 
on which we rest satisfied that it is a Revelation, 
and by shewing, that if that evidence be fitted 
to produce what is called moral certainty, we 
are bound to admit the Revelation, whatever 
may be the difficulties involved in some of its 
statements. 

Of these two methods, we have already pur- 
sued the former ; and, without reference, as yet, 
to the supposed evidence on which a Revelation 
may be based, we have endeavoured to prove 
that there is no necessaryincompatibilitybetween 
the internal difficulties, which are termed mys- 



90 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 

teries, and its truth ; and therefore that, provided] 
the external evidence be sound, no valid objec- 
tions to the claims of the Revelation can exist. 

In this question, two* things merit considera- 
tion. The internal difficulties opposed apparently 
to the reputation of the evidence, and the 
soundness of the evidence as bearing up the 
character of the Revelation against internal 
difficulties. 

We have shewn that the internal diffi- 
culties do not bring discredit on the reputation 
of the Revelation. Rut there is another way 
of proving this, by shewing that no apparent 
difficulties, provided they do not involve impos- 
sibilities, ought to outweigh external evidence, 
which conducts to moral certainty. Such is the 
nature of the evidence adduced in support of 
the Christian system, and we feel justified in 
pursuing this course of argument, because those 
adversaries of a Revelation, with whom we have 
to contend, do not deny the possible existence 
of external evidence in favour of its claims, but 
confine themselves to the position, that such 
evidence cannot outweigh internal improba- 
bilities. 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 91 

Of evidence there are various kinds, differing 
less in the degree of certainty acquired, than in 
the modes by which it is obtained. Passing by 
the simpler sorts of evidence which spring from 
consciousness, the senses, and axioms or self- 
evident truths, our attention becomes fixed on 
the two great branches of deductive evidence, 
Scientific, or Demonstrative, and Moral evidence. 

These two species of evidence are characterised 
by different features, whether we view the 
subjects to which they are applicable, or the 
graduation of certainty which exclusively per- 
tains to the latter, as contrasted with the fixed 
or absolute certainty which springs from the 
former; its sole object being essential or necessary 
truth. In simplicity too, and uniformity of 
proofs, demonstrative stands opposed to moral 
evidence. If the authority of the former seems 
greater, not less striking is the superior impor- 
tance of the subject, about which moral evidence 
is conversant. Her domain extends over the 
whole region of nature and art ; every thing 
that interests man, law, morals, and religion, 
acknowledges her sway. 

The certainty which we attain by means of 



92 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 

this evidence, is termed moral certainty. Here 
the mere abstract possibility of things being 
otherwise, does not involve an absurdity, as is 
the case in demonstrative reasoning. Every 
reasonable ground of suspecting, however, that 
they are so, is totally excluded, and the evidence 
cannot be set aside without violating the com- 
mon sense and reason of mankind. Of so high 
a kind is this evidence, that ordinary thinkers 
generally confound it with absolute certainty, 
and are not aware that the existence, for example, 
of London and Paris, is to them who have not 
seen them, only highly probable. In like manner 
we assert that it is highly probable that Christ 
and His Apostles performed the miracles which 
we find recorded in the narratives of the Evan- 
gelists ; the case does not admit of scientific or 
demonstrative evidence, but falls within the 
province of moral evidence. The broad and 
ordinary limits that lie between certainty and 
uncertainty, are apparent to all ; but to fix the 
exact boundaries that seperate, in every case, 
absolute from moral certainty, is a task of no 
ordinary difficulty ; the latter, in many cases, 
assuming the form and appearance of the former, 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 93 

and in its value possessing no inferiority, although 
that value be derived from a source that seems 
not entitled to the name of rigorous demon- 
stration. . 

Since we now take for granted, that those 
who derive an objection to Christianity, from 
the existence of internal difficulties, do not 
gainsay the moral evidence on which it rests, 
our present inquiry must be to the extent to 
which our assent is due to this moral evidence, 
in the face of the internal difficulties. Our 
present task is neither to soften down their 
difficulties, nor to explain how they may have 
found a place in the Revelation. Supposing 
they are in the Revelation, is the assent due to 
the moral evidence which conducts to moral 
certainty, sufficient to outweigh the difficulties 
attending the reception of some of its state- 
ments, provided these difficulties do not amount 
to absolute impossibilities ? 

In the common affairs of life, unless moral 
certainty were allowed to be a just and fair 
ground of conviction, unspeakable confusion 
would inevitably ensue ; the administration of 
justice would cease ; truth and confidence would 



94 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, §c. 

disappear, and the order and harmony of society 
would be broken. It is the intention of the 
Deity that we should be social creatures ; but 
society cannot be upheld without mutual trust 
and confidence ; and no truth can be reposed 
in any one, if those are not to be believed who 
give the strongest and most convincing proofs 
of integrity. These proofs were exhibited by 
the Apostles and first teachers of Christianity. 
Had this system been false the numerous converts 
in the first century could not have deemed it 
true. Amidst a variety of other proofs, the 
miraculous gifts professed to be given, must, if 
actually received, have been felt and known by 
them. St. Paul, in an epistle to the Corinthian 
Church, alludes to these gifts. Had no such 
gifts, therefore, existed, those to whom that 
epistle is addressed, must, instead of considering 
him a Divinely, commissioned teacher, have 
regarded him as an audacious impostor ; and 
the religion which he taught, must have fallen 
under the same imputation. But were it known 
by them to be false, it is utterly impossible to 
imagine that, at a time when the profession of 
the Christian faith was but another name for 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 95 

persecution and death, they should profess their 
belief in it ; unless we resort to the very- 
untenable hypothesis, that they loved persecution 
for its own sake. If we can seriously believe 
this alternative, we may believe any thing, or 
nothing, under so capricious a mode of estimating 
and accepting probabilities, society would not 
exist for a day. 

But if we deny what is morally certain here, 
we must always deny what is morally certain ; 
and if we believe on moral certainty, in the 
daily concerns of life, we are also bound to 
believe here. We may vainly wish to have abso- 
lute or demonstrative certainty, when the nature 
of the case forbids it, and to request the appro- 
priate evidence for the facts under review, be- 
cause another kind cannot be supplied, would only 
be equalled by the folly of him who should reject 
whatever he does not hear with his eye, or see 
with his ear. " He that should go to Revelation," 
says the eloquent Bishop Taylor, "to prove 
that nine and nine make eighteen would be a 
fool ; and he would be no less that goes about 
to prove a Trinity of persons by natural reason. 
Every thing must be derived from its own 



96 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, §c. 

foundations." But, in such questions, he goes 
on to remark, " my reason is set on work ; first 
I inquire into the testimony or ways of proba- 
tion, if they be worth believing in what they say, 
my reason seeks it out. As if I be told that 
God said ' There are three and one in Heaven,' 
I ask, who said it ? Is he credible ? Why ? If I 
find that all things satisfy my reason, I believe 
him saying that God said so ; and the »■*«*$ or 
faith enters. I believe the thing also, not 
because I can prove it directly, for I cannot, but 
I can prove it indirectly; testimony and authority 
are my argument, and that is sufficient. The 
Apostles entered into much of their faith by 
their senses, they saw many articles of their 
creed ; but as they which saw and believed were 
blessed, so they which see not, but are argued 
and disputed into their faith, and believe what 
they find reasonable to believe, shall have the 
reward of their faith, while they wisely follow 
their reason. " g 

The same eminent Divine, in another part of 
his works, remarks that, " when we discourse 
of mysteries, of faith, and articles of religion, it 

g Ductor Dubitantium. Book I. sec. 22. 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation , fyc. 97 

is certain that the greatest reason in the world, 
to which all other reasons must yield, is this,— 
God hath said it, therefore, it is true." h Now 
the external evidences of the Christian religion 
go to prove the Minor premiss of this argument ; 
namely, that " God has said it" ; and these 
evidences, we have seen, are such as to produce 
moral certainty. Those, therefore, who still 
object to the mysteries of the Christian Revela- 
tion, commit the absurdity of admitting the 
Major and Minor premisses in a syllogism, (the 
Major being, " that what God says is true") and 
yet rejecting the conclusion ; a conduct utterly 
at variance with the first principles of reasoning. 
In such questions, though we have not that 
certainty of truth, that we do not err, which 
would be gained were the contrary supposition 
immediately proved to be absurd, yet we have 
the same certainty on which, in worldly matters, 
we find no difficulty in forming our belief, and 
it may well be called unreasonable to ask for 
more. If the evidence be of an obligatory 
character, we are bound to admit it, and if we 
take into account the character of God, his 

h Jeremy Taylor on John vi. - Works, Vol. 10, p. 16. 

N 



98 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 

truthfulness, and his goodness, we shall arrive 
at such a degree of certainty, as to find it 
unassailable by every objection that does not 
amount to absolute impossibility. If there be 
no impossibility in the nature of the things, then 
we have no reason to urge why, for any thing 
we can tell, some rational solution of them, may 
not be given. One thing, however, is impossible, 
that God should so mislead us, as to cause us to 
be led by such evidence as w T ould have this 
effect, in a matter of the utmost importance. 
We are bound to acquiesce in moral certainty, 
for the contrary would immediately lead us into 
an absurdity. If a conviction and belief, founded 
on moral proofs, that we cannot shake, should 
prove erroneous, then we, who, by the laws of 
our Being, are formed to acquiesce in such proofs, 
are, by the Author of our Being, led into error. 
A notion so incompatible with just notions of 
the Divinity, as fairly to fall under the imputation 
of absurdity. The only difference then, between 
Demonstrative and Moral evidence, is this, that 
the direction of the former leads directly and 
immediately, the latter indirectly and mediately 
into absurdity. But no absurdity is involved in 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 99 

believing upon indubitable proofs, statements, 
that without such proofs, we should have con- 
sidered erroneous. The inhabitant of a warm 
country, if he were well assured of the veracity 
of one who came from a colder climate, would 
be perfectly justified in believing him, when told 
the fact, that in his country water is found to 
freeze ; though antecedently to such assertion, 
he might not have conceived such a thing pos- 
sible. 1 In truth, such an assent is daily given 
in the common affairs of life, and the remark 
usually made on hearing a strange narrative, " I 
should not have believed it possible, if you had 
not told me," is familiar to every one. 

If, however, we with-hold our assent from 
what is founded upon moral certainty, it is 
difficult to estimate the absurdities to which we 
are immediately reduced ; we are virtually 
striking a blow at the very root of all social life, 
the obligations that bind society together would 
be dissolved, and misery and ruin would be the 
sad results. No objections against Christianity 
can counter-balance the conclusion, that if this 
system be not true, a door is opened for the 

1 See Locke's account of the King of Bantam. 



100 The existenece of Mysteries in aRevelation^c. 

admission of the most unheard-of difficulties, a 
total disbelief of every thing which we have not 
ourselves witnessed ; the credibility of human 
testimony is destroyed, and the practical affairs 
of life are paralized by a scepticism, compared 
to which, that which intrudes into the domains 
of philosophy is but little to be regretted. It 
is in a word to make the astounding assertion, 
that several thousands of men, who could not 
have been deceived, as to the reality of certain 
public miracles which were immediately presented 
to their senses, entered into a league to induce 
the rest of the world to believe that they were 
thoroughly convinced of the truth of them, and 
of Christianity, (both being false) and that they 
adhered to this statement to the very last, not 
only without advancing their own interest, but 
even directly against it. This is the inexplicable 
mystery which is involved in the system of him 
who rejects Christianity. 

In considering the validity of any evidence, 
nothing is more common even with good reasoners 
than to call off attention from the proofs, to the 
thing to be proved. This distinction, how- 
ever, ought not to be overlooked, nor ought 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, %c. 101 

we, because difficulties seem to lie in the tiling 
to be proved, therefore, to impute these diffi- 
culties to the proofs, and to fancy that tliey are 
beset with obstacles to their reception, which 
do, in no respect, belong to them. In moral 
evidence it is a rule that no objections which 
may be urged, merely against the thing to be 
proved, provided they fall short of absolute 
impossibilities, ought to bring us to with-hold 
our assent from the proofs. All our assent is 
built on the proofs or evidences, and whilst they 
remain uninjured, equally unbroken ought our 
assent to remain. Nothing proves a thing to 
be untrue, except that which destroys the argu- 
ment by which it is proved to be a truth. This 
rule is observed in Philosophy, and no reason 
can be shewn why it should not equally hold in 
Religion. When we have established, on its own 
proper evidence, that body of truths which we 
term the Copernican system, no difficulties that 
seem to exist in the system, and apparent 
difficulties are not wanting, destroys for one 
moment our assent to the theory. We know 7 
that it has been established by its own proper 
evidence, and we rest satisfied. 



] 02 The existence of Mysteries in a Reveiation, fyc. 

It is difficult to imagine that a body so heavy 
as our Earth, should whirl through space with 
the rapidity which Astronomers ascribe to it ; 
but no one thinks of denying the accuracy of 
their conclusions, simply from this consideration. 
If we felt dissatisfied, we should look to the 
proof — not to the apparent consequences. The 
mass of mankind admit as true all the chief 
discoveries^of science, although they seem to 
them to contain things hard to be understood, 
solely on human testimony ; and without such 
testimony they would have rejected them as in 
many cases absurd. 

It has often been remarked that truth is more 
wonderful than fiction, and yet on appropriate 
evidence we hesitate not to give our assent to 
the wonders which an examination of the 
Almighty's workmanship is sure to develope. 
In such cases our Reason and our Faith are 
equally concerned ; our Reason deals with the 
evidences, and our Faith or Belief then admits 
the conclusions, referring to the former faculty 
the task of investigating the proofs. Happy 
would it be if men could be content to act 
similarly in the greater concerns of religion ; if 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, 8>c. 103 

they could see that there the appropriate task of 
their reason is to sift, weigh, and scrutinize the 
evidences adduced to shew that the Revelation 
we hold in our hands is really from God, and 
that this being performed, it becomes the 
bounden duty of Faith to assume an absolute 
sway over the domain now subjected to her 
sceptre ! Reason ought to stand at the portals 
of the mind, and to her Christianity must 
deliver her credentials, but when Reason is 
satisfied of their genuineness, she ought then 
to give way, and forbear to usurp over this new 
claimant for admittance into our hearts, that 
part which rightly belongs to her alone. 

It appears then, that improbabilities, which 
result from the nature of the thing, may be 
over-ruled and overcome, by positive proofs ; 
here is the propriety of this difficulty to be seen. 
Of the Nature of things, we are, in a great 
measure, utterly ignorant, their essence is not 
known to us, and the scanty knowledge which 
we do possess regarding them, is only the fair 
side of a picture, whose reverse is enveloped in 
darkness, and where innumerable questions are 
presented to us which we are unable to solve. 



104 The existence of Mysteries in a Ret elation ,fye. 

Far different^ is it with the proofs, or evidences, 
for the reality of what we believe ; though the 
internal nature of the things themselves be 
obscure, yet these may lie open to our appre- 
hension, and their clearness and form may be 
such as to challenge the assent of every sound- 
minded inquirer. He who brings objections 
against the evidences of the Christian Revelation, 
deserves our attentive and sober hearing. But 
such hearing has alreadybeen given. Everypossi- 
ble variety of objection has been brought, weighed 
in the balance and found wanting ; and the 
proofs for this Religion have come forth as gold 
from the furnace, seven times purified. Nor 
would objections against the matter of the 
Revelation, be worthy of refutation, provided 
they went to prove that it contained things 
impossible, or of an immoral tendency ; for either 
of these signs would prove that the Infinite 
Source of Purity, could not be its author. The 
field has been open, but no one has yet dared 
to bring such an objection against the Christian 
system ; should any attempt it, their signal 
defeat would speedily afford a salutary warning 
to others. Nothing, however short of Impossi- 



The existence of Mysteries in a Rev elation ,§c. 1 05 

bility or Immorality, will injure the cause of 
Christianity. Our insufficiency to judge of the 
true purport and bearing of a Revelation from 
God, must blunt the edge of every other objec- 
tion. But this insufficiency does not invalidate 
the external proofs on which we decide that 
the Revelation is genuine, for these lie not beyond, 
but within, the full scope and range of our 
faculties. 

It must, however, ever remain an arduous 
task to fix in matters that be far beyond the 
range of the human intellect, where probability 
ends, and impossibility commences. A thick 
haze lies on the border land, and we cannot 
pierce it. Yet the following consideration will, 
perhaps, assist us in forming our judgment in 
the matter. 

We ought to enquire, at the outset, whe- 
ther the question regards finite or infinite 
beings,— for if the former alone be concerned, 
our facility of arriving at a correct result, is 
greatly enhanced; if, however, the question 
concerns the Infinite Intelligence, it is evident 
that the extreme distance at which He stands 
removed from our observation, must ever per- 



106 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 

elude the hope of taking a full survey of His 
nature. To attempt it is, if we may use the 
comparison, as if an astronomer should make 
an observation on the action and properties of 
some far distant star— the existence of which 
had required the utmost efforts of his telescope 
to discover. The distinction then of things 
contrary to our reason must ever be borne in 
mind, and a heavy censure belongs to those who 
would seek to invole the mysteries of the 
Christian faith, that so clearly belong to the 
former class, in the sentence of condemnation 
due only to the latter. 

Things contrary to our reason are impos- 
sibilities—of things above our reason, it is absurd 
to decide that they are so ; for of their nature 
we cannot adequately form a judgment. Many 
an error has arisen by regarding the mysteries 
of the Christian Revelation as things positive 
rather than negative. It is the absence of 
explanation on the one hand, and the absence 
of capacity to understand any explanation on 
the other, that constitutes a mystery— and the 
wise forbearance of the Divine Being in not 
obtruding on our notice more than we can bear, 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, $c. 107 

has been weakly wrested into an argument 
against his Revelation. 

The mysteries of our faith are like the dark 
spots on the Sun's disc. It is only the com- 
mon enquirer who discovers them, for we may 
truly assert, that a blaze of light is cast around 
them, and a judicious reasoner would rather be 
disposed to feel grateful that so much has been 
revealed, for on every question that it concerns 
humanity to know, and to know which, the 
brightest intellect had wished and struggled— 
the blaze of meridian splendour has been flung, 
and those dark truths which, in vain, he longed 
to know, have been gilded with a radiance that 
even the child and peasant can now perceive 
them. Yes, never let us forget the debt of 
gratitude that we owe for the incalculable value 
of what has been revealed, for that is the true 
point to contemplate, and the objections that 
spring from the mysteries that are mingled with 
it, will all speedily take their flight, like the 
obscene and ugly birds of night before the bright 
shining of the sun. But the mysteries of the 
Christian Revelation are not merely negative, 
but they are also positive ; it should also be kept 



1 08 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 

In mind that they have a relative, not an absolute 
signification, and this term has respect to the 
understanding of him to whom the thing is 
mysterious. When we remember that there is 
in the Universe an Infinite Mind, it may almost 
appear a trueism to assert, that there is no 
doctrine absolutely and in itself mysterious, 
that is, above the comprehension of all under- 
standings. Surely the various relations of things 
are capable of being comprehended. And since, 
as we have remarked, there is in the Universe 
this Being, one of whose attributes is the pos- 
session of all-knowledge, we are satisfied that 
these relations and properties are actually 
understood and comprehended. Nothing then 
is per se mysterious ; the mysteriousness of a 
thing arises merely from the nature of the in- 
tellect to which it is submitted, and the term 
possesses therefore merely a relative signification. 
From this consideration it necessarily flows, 
since a doctrine is so far to any man mysterious, 
as he cannot or does not comprehend it, that if 
a mysterious doctrine be therefore false, the 
inevitable consequence, as Bishop Conybeare 



The exist enece of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 109 

remarks, 3 is, " that the knowledge of the most 
ignorant person is the standard of truth, that 
there can be no real difference in men's intellec- 
tual attainments, and no real progress made in 
knowledge." 

" For, if every mysterious doctrine be false ; 
and if every doctrine, not comprehended by 
the most ignorant person, be to him mysterious ; 
then every such doctrine is false. It follows 
that all truth is by him comprehended ; i. e. that 
his understanding is the measure of truth ; 
that no man can be really more knowing than 
another ; and no man really more knowing at 
one time, than at another. So fruitful is one 
absurdity of many more." 

From this digression, into which we have been 
led, in our endeavour to place on a proper foot- 
ing—the objection that would be derived against 
the Christian Revelation and the evidence on 
which it rests, w T ere it found to contain im- 
possibilities,— let us in lowlier strain remark 
that if such a thing is attainable, as a proper 
and undoubted certainty of fact, there is such a 

J See Conybeare's Discourse on Scripture Mysteries, to 
which I am indebted for some hints. 



1 10 The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 

moral certainty from the evidence which sup- 
ports Christianity. Now to resist the strength 
of moral certainty is to offer a violence to our 
nature. In no case, except in Religion, do we 
resist it, and it may therefore be reasonably 
contended, that if we do not in that, it can only 
be owing to some peculiarity either in Religion 
that causes us to do it, or to some peculiarity in 
ourselves, which is affected by this Religion. 
Both of these is the case. Religion stands dis- 
tinguished from every other thing, by being of 
an obligatory nature, and it is this that makes 
us fond of every little cavil, and willing, at any 
rate, to depreciate it, when, to a reasonable mind, 
it ought to recommend it most of all. In our- 
selves may be detected, by every one who is not 
afraid to look within, " an evil heart of unbelief," 
which produces in us a wrong bias ; for a man 
must struggle hard, and labour not to be con- 
vinced, who is not convinced by evidence which, 
in every other department of thought, would 
immediately carry conviction along with it. 

Yet far stronger still, could we rightly feel, 
is the inducement to give up our minds to this 
evidence. He who listens to the better sugges- 



The existence of Mysteries in a Revelation, fyc. 1 1 1 

tions of his heart, will recognise a potent motive 
for acquiescence ; for he will never be liable to 
bring himself to the melancholy conclusion, that 
God should leave his creatures, in practical 
affair s, in a doubtful state, with no more certain 
information of his will, than unfounded, and 
and often contradictory surmisses ; and if moral 
certainty is to be disregarded, without a possi- 
bility of ever coming to a fixed resolution, in 
whatever might be presented to their notice. 
We cannot suppose that God would cast the 
brilliant hues of truth around the hideous de- 
formities of Falsehood, and it is our duty, 
therefore, to follow the irresistable bias of our 
minds, sanctioned by every idea which we can 
form of His nature and workings, to acquire 
what presents so firm, and withal so sound, an 
array of evidence as the Christian Revelation ; 
so full and convincing, as to form an evidence to 
strong, and so clearly evincing the truth of this 
Revelation, as to leave it impossible that the 
existence of mysteries or any other internal 
difficulty, should ever form a solid argument 
against it. 



%fyt imtUte xt&ultiwQ from ffl$8tim&. 



Having now gone through the several branches 
of the subject, we will, in conclusion, take a 
brief retrospective view of the ground over 
which we have traversed. 

To vindicate the existence of Mysteries in a 
Revelation, we at first endeavoured to shew 
that it was quite possible for a Revelation to 
contain mysteries without having its genuineness 
at all affected thereby— we produced reasons 
for believing that the object for which the 
Supreme Being would at any time make a 
Revelation to his creatures, would be a practical 
one ; i. e. its design would be the regulation 
of their conduct, either towards the Supreme 
Being himself, or tow T ards each other— we found 
also that the calculation of these practical duties 
involved or implied a relation between the two 
parties— of which one was to pay obedience and 
the other receive it. When one of the parties 
was the Almighty himself, we shewed that there 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 1 ) 3 

were weighty reasons for expecting tliat thi:> 
expressed or implied relationship would give us 
some notions of certain properties of his nature, 
which like Deity would be far beyond the power 
of our mind to understand completely. 

Taking the object of a Revelation to be a 
practical one, we proceeded to shew that mys- 
teries would not be adverse to it, but on the 
contrary would be favourable to that design, 
and indeed we proved that we ought to expect 
them to appear in every Revelation which was 
made to us, and if mysteries are a necessary 
element in a Revelation, then it followed, that 
the absence of them would be an argument 
against its truth, and the necessary result of 
that was, that the existence of mysteries in a 
Revelation, forms no solid argument against its 
truth. 

Up to this point we refrained from alluding 
to any particular Revelation, but as the Christian 
Revelation is the only one which is opposed, and 
the only one which we believe to be true, and 
therefore worth defending, we next proceeded in 
the discussion of the question with reference to 
that single Revelation. In the outset of this 



1 14 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

part of tlie subject, it was clearly pointed out 
that the Christian Revelation does contain mys- 
teries, a fact denied even by some who believe 
it to be of Divine origin ; we proceeded to 
bring our preceding remarks to apply to the 
case of this Revelation, to accomplish which we 
demonstrated that the object of the Christian 
Revelation was a practical one, and that the ex- 
planation of the mysteries contained in it, formed 
no part of its design ; it was seen also that the 
existence of mysteries in the Christian Revelation 
was not only agreeable to what we might have 
expected to find, but also that it was necessary 
that it should contain mysteries. For one pur- 
pose of the Revelation was to reveal to us an 
account of the Supreme Being, so far as it was 
necessary we should know him in order to pay 
him the worship he demanded, and even the 
smallest knowledge of him has in it many par- 
ticulars of his greatness, which are beyond our 
power to comprehend ; yea, the knowledge of 
him which we can attain to, independent of 
Revelation, contains many of the very same 
mysteries which we find on the page of Revela- 
tion. Moreover we extended our observations 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 115 

from the Supreme Being to sublunary objects, 
and we found that nearly every thing with which 
we had to do, contained mysteries in it, and if 
Philosophy and Science are not rejected, though 
they contain mysteries, why should Theology ? 

Believing that the object of the Revelation 
was a practical one, we found reasons sufficient 
to convince us, that a fuller explanation of these 
mysterious things would not be given us, and, 
indeed, in our present state, could not be given us. 

And further, it appearing to us, that there 
were two ways in which the Christian Revelation 
could be vindicated from objections brought 
against it, on account of its containing mysterious 
doctrines, and having proved that from the 
nature of things, mysteries must enter into its 
composition, we proceeded to the next mode, 
and endeavoured to establish the position that 
we, whatever may be the alleged difficulties 
involved in some of its statements, are bound 
to receive the Christian Revelation on account 
of the moral certainty produced by its external 
evidences, and consequently, that its containing 
mysteries forms no solid argument against its 
truth. 



1 1 6 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

We do not venture to assert that mysteries 
have been inserted into the Revelation for the 
purpose of producing certain moral effects, but 
we are justly warranted in regarding those 
uses to which they are applicable ; if not of 
causes, we may regard them in the light of 
consequences, and their existence shows 
we find them. Thus, even from the dark 
spots, as it were, in the surface of the great 
Sun of Revelation, may be derived beams of 
light. The practical utility of these parts of 
Revelation is of the mediate or indirect kind— but 
still it is not less striking ; since " all Scripture 
is profitable for instruction in righteousness," 
we have no reason to expect that even the most 
mysterious doctrines will form an exception; 
they have a value,— though one peculiar,— and 
thus, even though now their value is so resplen- 
dent, that the eye and the mind of man cannot 
enter and behold their glory ; yet a time will 
come when the sight and the mind of man shall 
be purified, in that day the dark things will 
become plain, and the glorified being will 
declare that the mystery of God is finished. 

The inscrutable nature of the Divine Being is 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 1 1 7 

well calculated to fill our minds with sentiments 
of humility. If, when we survey the vastness 
of the material Universe, and rise from " nature 
up to nature's God/' we are lost in wonder and 
admiration, and the insignificance of our own 
state, stamps us with the littleness of our being, 
the same effect is produced by a contemplation 
of this intelligence as exhibited in the page of 
Revelation. For there, too, His footsteps may 
be traced, by the wonders that surround them ; 
and there the higher attributes of character, 
moral worth, love, mercy, justice, and truth, 
become the glittering marvels that the contem- 
plation brings before us. There, too, man may 
contrast the insignificancy of his own nature, 
with the greatness of the Being who formed 
him, and when he finds his highest efforts are 
not sufficient to grasp the nature and properties 
of this Being, the pride of his reason is checked, 
his presumption is rebuked, as forcibly as if the 
command had rung audibly in his ears, " Thus 
far shalt thou go, and no further." 

Of all the virtues, Humility is that, which is 
the most characteristic of the Christian religion . 
If we were to adopt, in forming a system of 



1 1 8 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

Christian morality, the threefold division of 
duties which is commonly employed, those duties 
which refer to God, our neighbour, and to our- 
selves,— we might form a code brief indeed, in its 
enunciation, but goodly and fair in the practical 
application of it. We should say that the 
feeling demanded by our religion towards God 
and our fellow creatures is Love, and that which 
is to be exercised by each one, with reference to 
himself, is the mild grace of Humility. 
They are thus set forth :— 

Feeling towards God. 

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy mind." "This is the first and great com- 
mandment." 1 ' 

Feeling towards others. 

" I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse yon, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use 
you, and persecute you." 1 " If thine enemy 
hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink : 

k Matt. xxii. 37, 38. 
1 Matt. v. 44. 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 1 19 

for in so doing thou slialt heap coals of fire on 
his head." m " I thank God, whom I serve from 
my forefathers with pure conscience, that without 
ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my 
prayers night and day." n " Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself." " A new commandment 
(said Jesus) I give unto you, that ye love one 
another ; as I loved you, that ye also love one 
another. ,,p " Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to 
be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if 
God so loved us, we ought also to love one 
another. And this commandment have we from 
him, that he who loveth God love his brother 
also." "If ye fulfil the royal law according 
to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbour 
as thyself, ye do well." r " A certain Samaritan, 
as he journeyed, came where he (the certain 
man who fell among thieves) was : and when he 
saw him, he had compassion on him, and went 
to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in 
oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and 
brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 

m Rom. xii. 20. n 2 Tim. i. 3. ° Matt. xxii. 39. p John 
xiii. 34. q 1 John iv. 10, 11, 21. r James ii. 8. 



1 20 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

And on the morrow, when he departed, he took 
out two-pence, and gave them to the host, and 
said unto him, take care of him ; and whatsoever 
thou spendest more, when I come again, I will 
repay thee." s 

Feeling towards ourselves. 

" Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven."* "Whosoever shall 
humble himself as a little child, the same is the 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven " u K Let the 
brother of low degree rejoice in that he is 
exalted, but the rich in that he is made low." v 
" I charge every one among you not to think of 
himself more highly than he ought to think ; 
but to think soberly, according as God hath 
dealt to every man the measure of faith. 
Mind not high things but condescend to men of 
low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. " w 
" Who maketh thee to differ from another ? 
and what hast thou, that thou didst not re- 
ceive ? now if thou didst receive it, why dost 
thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ?" x 

s Luke x. 33. 35. t Matt. v. 3, u Matt, xviii. 4. v James 
i. 9, 10. w Rom. xii. 3, 16. x 1 Cor. iv. 7. 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 1 2 1 

" God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto 
the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to 
God. Humble yourselves therefore in the sight 
of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." 7 " In 
lowliness of mind let each esteem others better 
than himself." 2 

Intellectual pride is one of the chief enemies 
of this virtue. He who fancies that his mind 
is fitted to embrace the highest themes, will 
find it hard to acknowledge that " Whatsoever 
is Divine Revelation ought to overrule all our 
opinions, prejudices, and interests, and hath a 
right to be received with full assent," and 
although " Such a submission as this of our 
reason to faith, takes not away the land-marks 
of knowledge, although this shakes not the 
foundation of reason, but leaves us that use of 
our faculties for which they were given us." a He 
will find it difficult to bring down his high 
thoughts, and meekly, as a little child, receive 
the word of life. We know no discipline more 
wholesome, or better calculated to teach such 
an one the real state of his mental powers, their 

y James iv. 6. 7, 10. z Phil. ii. 3. 
a Locke, Book iv. c. xviii. p. 10. 



122 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

weakness, and the limited range of tlieir efforts, 
than to contemplate any one of the great mys- 
teries of our faith. Upon these the favourite 
operations of the human mind cannot be brought 
to bear, and we are led to look also upon objects 
in creation, that are past our finding out. The 
mind is brought to rely on the testimony, and 
to become " the meek recipient of intelligence, 
to be taken without questioning, honoured with 
belief when it cannot be cleared by exposition." 
Thus we see that even from those parts of the 
Revelation which seem, at first sight, to present 
nought to our understanding save subjects of 
barren speculation, God has enabled us to derive 
lessons in that grace, the frequent inculcation 
of which, distinguishes Christianity from every 
other system of belief. 

The correlative of humility, with reference to 
ourselves, is reverence and awe towards the great 
Maker of the Universe, and so closely are these 
moral graces connected, that he who possesses 
the one cannot be deficient in the other. They 
may, in fact, be termed the same feeling, ope- 
rating in opposite directions. The man who, 
when he looks to the majesty and mysteriousness 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 123 

of Jehovah's character, is lost in reverence and 
awe, has no time, when he casts a glance at his 
own weakness, for ought save the lowliest 
thoughts. 

In truth, veneration is no other than the 
homage of a lowly mind. Reverence, then, is 
another practical advantage which we derive 
from the existence of mysteries. We cannot 
but feel veneration for the great Being, whose 
nature is so vast as to elnde our every effort to 
comprehend, and not all the brilliant and glo- 
rious wonders which he has so plentifully strewed 
around this onr dwelling-place, are better fitted 
to produce such emotions, than the silent medi- 
tation of onr own minds, on the nature and 
condition of his existence. Snch meditations 
will speedily become a Revelation, at once of 
his greatness, and of our weakness. 

"All Eminency,"says one of onr great Divines^ 
" is worshipped with Humility, Reverence, and 
Submission, that is, as we are wont and rightly 
to speak, By keeping a distance. Therefore the 
Sovereign or Supreme excellency of God must 
be adored with the lowest demission and greatest 

b Mede, Vol. 1. page 310, 311. 



1 24 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

stoop the soul can make. We finde, by expe- 
rience, that that disposition of the eye which 
fits us to behold the visible sun, makes a man 
blinde when he looketh down upon himself* so 
here, the apprehension of the transcendent 
excellency of God, ten thousand times brighter 
than the sun, if truly admitted into our hearts, 
will darken all overweening conceit of any 
worthiness in ourselves. The greater we would 
apprehend his power — the more sensible we 
must be of our weakness. The greater we 
acknowledge his goodness, the less goodness 
we must see in ourselves. The more we would 
apprehend his wisdom, the less we are to be 
puffed up with our own knowledge. As in a 
pair of skales, the higher we would raise one 
skale, the lower we pull down the other ; so the 
higher we raise God in our hearts, the lower 
we must depress ourselves. 

Hence we finde the humblest natures and the 
most humbled condition to be the fittest for de- 
votion ; I say, the humblest natures are the most 
pliable and aptest to Religion ; whereas those 
which the world is wont to commend for brave 
spirits, of all others buckle the worst thereto. 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 125 

But let the world fancy what it will, God seeth 
not as a man seeth. It is not the tallest Eliah, 
but the humblest David, who is the man after 
God's own heart. He that humbleth himself as 
a little childe, the same is the tallest and good- 
liest soul for the kingdome of God. 

The stars in the firmament, howsoever they 
here seem small to us, yet are bigger than the 
earth. So he that is despicable and small here 
in the eyes of men, is a great one in the eyes 
of God. Let those, therefore, that think all 
worth resides in a lofty and brave spirit, remem- 
ber that the Devil was a braver fellow than any 
of them all, and that his high and lofty spirit 
was the cause of his downfall and apostasie 
from his Creator, and so of that damnation to 
everlasting fire prepared for him and his Angels. 

And as the humblest nature, so the humblest or 
most humbled state and condition, is the fittest 
also for the exercise of devotion, as the poor 
and mean rather then the rich and full. Where- 
fore Agur desired of God, not to give him more 
food then was convenient for him, lest being full 
he should deny him, and say, who is the Lord ? 
Such likewise is the state of adversity and afnic- 



126 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

tion ; whence is it that God useth this discipline 
of his corrections and judgments, to make us 
crouch and bow down unto him, when he seeth 
us ready to forget him. Whence David c pro- 
nounceth the man blessed, whom the Lord 
chastiseth, and d Before I was afflicted, saith he, 
I went astray ; but now have I kept thy word. It 
is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I 
might learn thy statutes. 

For diseases, say the Physicians, must be 
cured by contraries. It was Pride that caused 
the disloyalty and rebellion both of men and 
Angels against their God and maker. Whence 
is that of Syracides. " The beginning of pride 
is, when one departeth from God, and his heart 
is turned away from his Maker. For pride is 
the beginning of sin, and he that hath it shall 
pour out abomination ; and therefore the Lord 
will bring upon them strange calamities, and 
overthrow them utterly." 6 

If pride be the beginning of our rebellion 
against God, then must Lowliness be the proper 
disposition of those who fear and worship him ; 

c Psalm xciv. 12. d Psalm cxix. 67, 71. 
e Ecclesiasticus x. 12, 13. 



The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 127 

and so, Tanto quisque est vilior Deo, quanto est 
pretiosior Sibi : The higher any one is in his own 
esteem, the lower is he in God's. 

Lastly, the Revelations regarding the moral 
state of man, which the Christian religion con- 
veys to us, and some of these may fitly be ranked 
among its mysteries, are well calculated to pro- 
duce in us the most lowly estimate of ourselves. 
Man is a changeable creature, a mortal creature, 
for from the infant that hangs upon its mother's 
bosom, to the old man who sinks under the 
decrepitude of years, we see death in all its 
woeful and affecting varieties ; but, above all, he 
is a sinful creature; without repentance and 
faith in Christ, a creature destined to never- 
ending misery ; surely then with the wise man 
pride can have no proper resting-place, he carries 
within himself a sufficient cause for humiliation, 
and whenever he looks into the secret recesses, 
or surveys the black spots on his heart, he cannot 
but be abased in his own eyes. 

But, in conclusion, the Christian Mysteries 
are not devoid of lessons of a more cheering 
and inspiring nature— we believe that the mist 
will not always hang over them ; we cannot 



128 The benefits resulting from Mysteries. 

think that the grey dawn will always continue ; 
the perfect day must come at last— and then 
shall we know even as we are known. Every 
mystery that now perplexes us— every obscurity 
that now clogs our vision— may be construed 
into an argument, and a reason for hope. No ! 
we cannot cast aside the mysteries of Revelation 
in all our doubts and despair ; when the dark 
cloud is passing over our souls— and the awful 
land of shadows seems to approach us with its 
hastening gloom— these very doubts will array 
themselves in light— as the sure pledges of a 
coming illumination. The light that beams forth 
from the Lamb that sits upon the throne of 
Heaven, will shine with so bright a lustre, and 
diffuse such a kindly and nourishing warmth, as 
utterly to drive away the damp and noxious 
vapours that may have hovered around our 
minds in this imperfect state of our existence— 
the mysteries of Revelation will then be clearly 
seen to have " formed no solid argument against 
its truth," for the veil that now shrouds the 
Ancient of Days will be rent, and we shall behold 
Him as He is— and in the clear light of Himself, 
understand Him. 



gppentit);. 



&ppen&tx a. 



Much diversity of opinion exists with reference 
to the nature and validity of the arguments by 
which the existence of the soul, after death, is 
generally attempted to be proved. We speak 
here of proofs derived merely from unaided 
reason. Of the validity of such proofs, it would 
be difficult in some respects, in the present state 
of human intelligence, to form an adequate 
notion, for we have the great truth which they 
seek to establish, placed upon a firmer foundation 
by the Christian Revelation ; and amid the blaze 
of light which is there cast on man's future 
destiny, it is as difficult to attempt a survey of 
it by the glimmering rays which unaided reason 
diffuses around it, as it would be to attempt 
amid the effulgence of the midday beam to 
estimate the exact amount of light cast on a 
given object by the twinkling of a taper. 

Fortunately, however, we are in possession 
of the reasonings of men whose researches were 
conducted entirely by that scanty light whiclh. 



132 Appendix, A. 

Human reason can fling over the dark scenes of 
the future; and an attentive consideration of their 
remains will shew us both what unaided reason 
can, and what it cannot discover ; will shew us 
the mode by which such investigations may 
be instituted, and the certainty or uncertainty 
which attaches to the conclusions to which they 
lead. In the writings of Plato and Xenophon/ 
for example, we have this subject expressly 
treated; and amid the voluminous remains of 
the Roman Orator we find frequent discussions 
of the same topic. The following is the course 
of argument commonly employed. To prove 
the immortality of the soul, its immateriality 
must previously be established. In every com- 
bination of matter we find certain qualities 
which uniformly present themselves ; and every 
phenomenon of matter may be adequately ex- 
plained by their aid. The most intricate me- 
chanism is merely the product of combinations 
of matter acting according to the laws impressed 
on it by Nature; Length, Breadth, Thickness, 
the Elements of solid extension are its essential 
properties, without which it could not exist : 

f See Phaedo and Cympaedia. 



Appendix, A. 133 

but if we consult the evidence afforded by our 
mental consciousness, we become introduced to 
a new set of qualities, differing from these not 
in degree but in kind, and derive from thence a 
conviction that the substance which possesses 
these properties is not material. No possible 
combination of material substances can, as far 
as we know, evolve an immaterial quality ; can 
produce a thought or a feeling ; that, therefore, 
which does produce such qualities cannot be 
matter. So on the other hand, we find that the 
immaterial substance which we call mind has 
none of the properties of matter; we cannot 
conceive of extension or occupation of space as 
belonging to a thought or a wish. Now that 
which has no extension cannot be conceived of 
as consisting of parts ; that which has neither 
length nor breadth cannot be supposed sus- 
ceptible of division ; and that which has no 
parts and cannot be divided, cannot be destroyed; 
it is indes true table, and therefore immortal. 
Such is a brief sketch of the reasoning employed 
by philosophers to prove the immortality of the 
Human Soul. 

One serious difficulty attending this argument 



134 Appendix A. 

is, that it is equally applicable to the thinking 
or immaterial principle which exists in the lower 
animals. For they too have in them the seeds 
or rudiments of intelligence, and when we 
term this instinct, we are merely concealing 
our ignorance under a specious name. The 
brutes have at least sensation and memory ; and 
these are immaterial qualities. The force of 
this objection has been perceived by philosophers, 
and the late Dr. Brown/ the author of the 
Philosophy of the Human Mind, has frankly 
acknowledged its force. But the argument 
under review is liable to other objections ; it 
does not appear to have produced a settled 
conviction even in those who originally employed 
it. Of the doubts and perplexities which beset 
the mind of Cicero on this subject, the most 
inattentive reader of his philosophical works 
will find ample proofs; and, from the nature 
of the case, the doubts rather than the convic- 
tions of this great and good man must have been 
the common portion of the Heathen world. 

The truth is, as Paley justly remarks, " the 
Immortality of the Soul was but one guess 

e See his Life by Dr. Welsh. 



Appendix, A. 135 

among many." And though nothing may perhaps 
seem more decided than the expression, "Ominun 
amini sunt immortales" yet in another place 
Cicero seems rather to acquiesce in this belief, 
(if we may so term it) as a pleasing delusion, 
too agreeable to be dismissed from the mind, 
than as a firmly established truth : u Si in hoc 
erro, quod animos hominum immortales esse credam, 
labenter erro ; nee mihi hunc errorem, quo detector, 
idem vivo extorqueri volo" h What is this but 
playing with his convictions, and substituting 
the agreeableness of a proposition for the 
evidence on which it ought to rest ? 

But the Heathen world were not singular in 
these doubts and uncertainties. Bishop War- 
burton has, we think, fully shewn that the 
immortality of the soul made no part of the 
common creed, even of the Jewish people, and 
that we may adopt, in its fullest sense, the express 
declaration of Holy Writ, that " Life and Im- 
mortality were brought to light in the Gospel." 
Whilst the higher and more practical advantages 
which we owe to Christianity are gratefully con- 
fessed, let this striking feature of the Christian's 
h Cato Major, ad finem. 



136 Appendix, A. 

faith never be forgotten. The noble passage in 
Paley on this subject, will immediately occur 
to every one ; " Had Jesus Christ delivered no 
other declaration than the following, ' the hour 
is coming in the which all that are in the grave 
shall hear bis voice, and shall come forth ; they 
that have done good unto the resurrection of 
life, and they that have done evil unto the 
resurrection of damnation ;' he had pronounced 
a message of inestimable importance, and well 
worthy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy 
and miracles, with which his mission was 
introduced and attested; a message in which 
the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an 
answer to their doubts, and rest to their enqui- 
ries. It is idle to say that a future state had 
been discovered already ; it had been discovered 
as the Copernican system was, it was one guess 
among many. He alone discovers who proves ; 
and no man can prove this point but the teacher 
who testifies, by miracles, that his doctrine 
comes from his God." 1 

1 Paley Mor. Phil. Book v. conclusion. We do not intend, 
by giving this passage, to have it inferred that we give approval 
to Dr. Paley's Mor. Phil. We think it is neither Philosophical 
in its arrangement, nor sound in its principles. 



Appendix, A. 137 

To ascertain the existence of the Human Soul 
after deaths is, however, merely the prelude to 
another enquiry : what is the nature of that 
existence, and w 7 hat connection exists, between 
variety of moral character in this world, and 
allotment of condition in the next? " Animi 
bonorum et fortium sunt divini" is the assertion 
of Cicero, and it remains that we endeavour to 
ascertain the extent of its truth. I know not 
a more deeply interesting question than that 
which regards the future condition, the future 
happiness or misery of the Heathen world. It 
is one of those inscrutable things that the Divi- 
nity has shrouded in darkness, but into which 
human curiosity is ever, though vainly, endea- 
vouring to pry. Nor let such curiosity be deemed 
highly culpable. The grateful disciple of a 
Plato or a Cicero naturally pictures to himself 
the felicity which must arise from communicating, 
in a future scene, with those masters of wisdom, 
from whose lips flows to him a sound, as the Old 
Bard expresses it, " sweeter than honey ;" but 
such hopes are embarrassed when he reflects on 
the extremely imperfect views which seem to 
have passed current in the Heathen world, re- 



138 Appendix A. 

garding the very qualities that enter into the 
composition of virtue and vice. This objection 
would be very strongly felt by one who should 
interpret the expression "fortium" in its literal 
sense. May we not, however, be permitted to 
take it in a wider signification, and view it as 
embracing all the various species of energy and 
strength of character ? Firmness and decision 
are nobler qualities than mere physical courage, 
and may more fitly claim to be associated with 
the epithet " good." Such is the character which 
Cicero declares to be truly divine. But our 
religion speaks more definitely on this point, and 
our own language, to quote the remark of an 
elegant writer, j informs us " who is the most God- 
like, viz — the most Godly." It is the man whose 
character has been brought into closest confor- 
mity with that of the Supreme Being ; in whose 
heart the Divine Spirit has sown the seeds of 
" whatsoever things are true, and honest, and 
just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report," that 
is the best entitled to claim the epithets employed 
by the Heathen moralist, " bonus et fortisT Of 
such a man it may be said that he is truly divine. 

X C. J. Hare, Guesses at Truth. First Series. 



^ppen&tx §&♦ 



Perhaps I may be told that although things 
which are incomprehensible occur in our physical 
and mixed enquiries, they have no place in "pure 
mathematics, where all is not only demonstrable, 
but intelligible." This, again, is an assertion 
which I cannot admit; and for the denial of 
which I shall beg leave to produce my reasons, 
as this will, I apprehend, make ^till more in 
favour of my general argument. Now, here it 
is known geometricians can demonstrate that 
there are curves which approach continually to 
some fixed right line, without the possibility of 
ever meeting it. Such, for example, are hyper- 
bolas, which continually approach towards their 
asymptotes, but cannot possibly meet them, 
unless an assignable finite space can become 
equal to nothing. Such, again, are conchoids, 
which continually approach to their directrices, 
yet can never meet them, unless a certain point 
can be both beyond and in contact with a given 
line at the same moment. Mathematicians can 



140 Appendix, B. 

also demonstrate that a space infinite in one 
sense may, by its rotation, generate a solid of 
finite capacity ; as is the case with the solid 
formed by the rotation of a logarithmic curve 
of infinite length upon its axis, or that formed 
by the rotation of an Apollonian hyperbola upon 
its asymptote. They can also show in numerous 
instances that a variable space shall be con- 
tinually augmenting, and yet never become 
equal to a certain finite quantity : and they 
frequently make transformations with great 
facility and neatness, by means of expressions 
to which no definite ideas can be attached. 
Can we, for example, obtain any clear compre- 
hension, or indeed any notion at all, of the 
value of a power whose exponent is an acknow- 
ledged imaginary quantity, as x V — 1 ? Can 
we, in like manner, obtain any distinct idea of 
a series constituted of an infinite number of 
terms ? In each case the answer, I am convinced 
must be in the negative. Yet the science, in 
which these and numerous other incomprehen- 
sibles occur, is called Mathesis, the discipline, 
because of its incomparable superiority to other 
studies in evidence and certainty, and, therefore, 



Appendix, B. 141 

its singular adaptation to discipline the mind. 
And this, notwithstanding these mysteries, (for 
are they not such?) is the science, says the 
eloquent and profound Dr. Barrow, "which 
effectually exercises, not vainly deludes, nor 
vexatiously torments, studious minds with ob- 
scure subtleties, perplexed difficulties, or con- 
tentious disquisitions ; which overcomes without 
opposition, triumphs without pomp, compels 
without force, and rules absolutely without any 
loss of liberty ; which does not privately over- 
reach a weak faith, but openly assaults an armed 
reason, obtains a total victory, and puts on 
inevitable chains." How does it happen, now, 
that when the investigation is bent towards ob- 
jects which cannot be comprehended, the mind 
arrives at that in which it acquiesces as certainty, 
and rests satisfied ? It is not, manifestly, because 
we have a distinct perception of the nature of 
the objects of the enquiry (for that is precluded 
by the supposition, and, indeed, by the pre- 
ceding statement) ; but because we have such'a 
distinct perception of the relation those objects 
bear one toward another, and can assign posi- 
tively, without danger of error, the exact relation^ 



142 Appendix, B. 

as to identity or diversity, the quantities before 
us, at every step of the process. Mathematics 
is not the science which enables us to ascertain 
the nature of things in themselves ;— for that 
alas ! is not a science which can be learned in 
our present imperfect condition, where we see 
" through a glass darkly ;"— but the science of 
quantity as measurable, that is, as comparable : 
and it is obvious, that we can compare quantities 
satisfactory in some respects, while w r e know 
nothing of them in the others. Thus we can 
demonstrate, that any two sides of a plane 
triangle are, together, greater than the third, 
by showing that angles of whose absolute 
magnitude we know nothing, are one greater 
than the other ; and then inferring the truth of 
the proposition, from the previously demon- 
strated proposition, that the greater angle in a 
triangle is subtended by the greater side. So 
again, when we affirm that between any two 
consecutive terms of the natural series of whole 
numbers, there may be interposed an indefinite 
number of magnitudes which are not fractional, 
the reason at first revolts as if we proposed 
an absurdity; for it seems repugnant to the 



Appendix, B. 143 

first principles of common sense that between 
99 and 100, for example, it should be possible 
to interpose a multitude of numbers, none of 
which can be correctly represented by either 99 
plus a fraction, or 100 minus a fraction. Yet 
far from involving absurdity, the proposition is 
so strictly true, that we cannot refute it without 
rasing to its foundation all mathematical science. 
For, it is demonstrable that the square roots of 
9802, 9803, 9804, 9805, &c. to 10000, are each, 
in succession, greater than the former ; and the 
first of them greater than 99. In like manner 
we can prove that the cube roots of 860300, 
860301, 860302, &c. to 1000000, are each in 
succession greater than the former ; that the 
cube root of 860300, the smallest of them, 
while it exceeds 99, is less than the square root 
of 9802. In like manner we can assign separate 
series of biquadrate and sursolid roots still more 
numerous than the square and cube roots, all 
of which shall be demonstrably unequal to 
each other, shall be interposed in point of 
numerical value between 99 and 100, and yet 
shall, none of them, be correctly expressible 
either by the sum of 99 and a fraction, or by 



144 Appendix, B. 

the difference of 1 00 and a fraction. Here, then, 
reason must bend, put on the "inevitable 
chains," and feel itself constrained, not merely 
to acknowledge the existence of those incom- 
mensurables which are neither fractional nor 
integral numbers, but also that while they are 
unsusceptible of precise appreciation, they admit 
of as accurate comparison as any other mathe- 
matical quantities. No mathematician can tell 
the precise value of V 2 or V 5 ; every one can 
tell the precise value of V 4 or V 9 : no one, 
notwithstanding, will hesitate longer to declare 
that V5 exceeds V2 } than to declare that V9 
exceeds V4, that is, that 3 is greater than 2. 

Once more, we cannot possibly know all the 
terms of the infinite series 

1 c c 2 c 3 c 4 - 

1 1 , &c. in infin. 

a a 2 a 3 a x a 5 

because such knowledge implies a contradiction : 
neither can we know all the terms of the infinite 
series 

l a a 2 a 3 a A 

+ + — — , &c 

c c z c 3 c x c 5 

yet we can show that these series are equal. 
For we can demonstrate that the first series is 



Appendix, B. 145 

an expanded function, standing with the quantity 
^~r~ c m tne relation of equality : we can like- 
wise demonstrate, that the second series bears 
the relation of equality with the quantity c , a : 
and although we can have but a vague idea even 
of the quantities c ■ g and a , c > while a and c 
stand as general representatives of any quantities; 
yet those fractions must necessarily be equal, 
and thence we infer the like equality between 
the sums of the two infinite series. In a similar 
manner we can have no clear conception of the 
nature of the quantities V — a, V — - b, &c. ; yet 

we are as certain that V — a = V — b x Vt, 

as that 20 + 30 = 50 : since we can demon- 
srate that equality subsists in the former 
expression as completely as we can in the latter, 
both being referable to an intuitive truth. Every 
mathematician can demonstrate strictly that 
the conclusions he obtains by means of these 
quantities, though he cannot comprehend them 
in themselves, must necessarily be true: he 
therefore acts wisely when he uses them, since 
they facilitate his inquiries ; and, knowing that 



146 Appendix, B. 

their relations are real, he is satisfied, because it- 
is only in those relations that he is interested. 

To you my friend, who are so conversant with 
mathematical subjects, this enumeration of par- 
ticulars would be perfectly unnecessary, were 
it not in order to recommend that similar 
principles to those which I have here traced be 
adopted, when religious topics are under investi- 
gation. We cannot comprehend the nature of 
an infinite series, so far as that nature depends 
upon an acquaintance with each term ; but we 
know the relation which subsists between it 
and the radix from which it is expanded : we 
cannot comprehend the nature of the impossible 
quantities V — a, V — b, &c. ; but we know their 
relation to one another, and to other algebraic 
quantities. In like manner (though I should 
scarcely presume to state such a comparison, but 
for the important practical inference which it 
furnishes), we cannot, with our limited faculties, 
comprehend the infinite perfections of the 
Supreme Being, or reconcile his different at- 
tributes, as to see distinctly how "mercy and 
peace are met together, righteousness and truth 
have embraced each other ; or how the Majestic 



Appendix, B. 147 

Governor of the universe can be every where 
present, yet not exclude other beings ; but we 
know, or at least may know (if we do not 
despise and reject the information graciously 
vouchsafed to us by the God of truth), his 
relation to us, as our Father, our Guide, and our 
Judge.— We cannot comprehend the nature of 
the Messiah, as revealed to us in his twofold 
character of " the Son of God," and the " Man 
Christ Jesus;" but we know the relation in which 
he stands to us as the Mediator of the New 
Covenant, and as he " who was wounded for our 
transgressions, who was bruised for our iniquities, 
and by whose stripes we are healed :"— Again, we 
we cannot comprehend, perhaps, why the 
introduction of moral evil should be permitted 
by him " who hateth iniquity ;" but we know, 
in relation to ourselves, that he hath provided 
a way for our escape from the punishment due 
to sin (which way if we lose, the fault is entirely 
our own),— and therefore, though we cannot 
comprehend and explain it so as to silence all 
cavillers, yet we have abundant reason to " glory 
in the mystery of Reconciliation." By pursuing 
this current of reflection farther, and running 



148 Appendix, B. 

over the general principles of other branches of 
mathematical, chemical, and metaphysical science 
than I have here adverted to, yon will still find, 
I am persuaded, that the result of the inquiry 
will come in aid of our religious belief, by 
showing that the difficulties attending Christianity 
are of the same kind (and probably should be 
referred to the same cause, the weakness of our 
faculties) as those which envelope all the funda- 
mental principles of knowledge. 

Olinthus Gregory s Letters. 



FINIS. 



JOHN HIRST, PRINTER, OLDHAM. 



®mrta> 



At page iii 


line 12 for Imposter 


read Impostor 


8 




5 


so is in fact 


so, is, in fact, 






21 


light 


life 


16 




17 


were 


where 


17 




24 


fulfillment 


fulfilment 


24 




18 


imposter 


impostor 






21 


imposter 


impostor 


27 




9 


fulfillment 


fulfilment 


28 


note line 


7 


absurdity. Although 


\ r absurdity, although 
' "■ true. And 








true; and 


33 


line 


1 


mislead 


misled 


35 to 40 heading 


A Christian 


The Christian 


51 


line 


8 


behooves 


behoves 


53 




7 


natute 


nature 


61 


note line 


3 


Parke's 


Persees 


63 




2 


were 


where 


80 


line 16 


groupe 


group 


92 




22 


seperate 


separate 


100 




5 


paralized 


paralyzed 


105 




25 


per 


pre 


106 




10 


invole 


involve 


108 




6 


trueism 


truism 


111 




7 


surmisses 


surmises 






14 


irresistable 


irresistible 






19 


to 


so 


133 




21 


indestructable 


indestructible 


147 




14 


omit we 





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